LEADERS of the country’s top business organizations have pushed for congressional amendments to the 85-year-old Public Service Act (PSA). Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have already passed on third reading their respective bills seeking to amend the PSA, otherwise known as Commonwealth Act 146.
In a joint letter to the two legislative chambers, the business groups said that amending the PSA would promote foreign direct investments and enable the economy to achieve pre-pandemic growth rates that have eluded the Philippines over the past two years. Previously, the business sector renewed its call to Congress for the passage of the amended PSA that will limit the definition of public utilities to natural monopolies and make a clear distinction from public services.
The approved bills of each chamber will now go to the bicameral conference committee (BCC) for reconciliation of contentious provisions, particularly those relaxing ownership restrictions on utility firms. Under the Philippine Constitution, public utilities should be 60-percent Filipino-owned.
Starting February 5, the 18th Congress will go on recess for three and a half months to give way to the official campaign season for the May 9 elections and the subsequent canvassing of ballots. During the 109-day period, business is put on hold and many congressmen take advantage of the long break to campaign in their constituencies or go on vacations abroad.
Among the affected bodies is the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), where a protest case has been pending for almost three years. This involves the third legislative district of Camarines Sur in the Bicol region, bailiwick of the late Luis Robredo Villafuerte Sr.
After the Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed Gabriel H. Bordado Jr. as winner in the 2019 congressional election, Villafuerte contested the results in 99 clustered precincts. He passed away in September 2021 but his daughter Lalaine Villafuerte-Abonal has continued the protest.
Last December 6 to 15, the HRET revision committee conducted a manual recount of the ballots, which showed that Villafuerte’s lead of 23,132 votes overcame the 2019 tally with Bordado leading by 21,625 votes. This means that Bordado is not the legitimate congressman representing the said district and should be replaced by a caretaker that House Speaker Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco shall appoint.
It may be recalled that Velasco himself disputed the victory of Regina Ongsiako Reyes in the congressional election for the lone district of Marinduque in 2013. Both the Supreme Court and the Comelec upheld his protest, but then House Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr. maintained that a decision to unseat Reyes was up to the HRET. Finally, after more than 30 months of deliberations, Velasco was proclaimed the legitimate representative of Marinduque and assumed office on February 1, 2016—with only five months to go before the 17th Congress ended.
Villafuerte’s camp is in a similar situation today and they hope that the HRET will proclaim him by the end of this week. That would enable Velasco to declare the congressional seat vacant and appoint a caretaker solon to legitimately represent the district in the remaining months of the 18th Congress.
Failure to do so would mean a longer wait for the May 23 resumption of the third regular session, which will mostly be devoted to the proclamation of the next President and Vice President of the Philippines. Based on the legislative calendar, Congress shall adjourn on June 3, and if the HRET takes that long to decide the protest case, they will be depriving the district’s constituents of legitimate representation.
In the case of the PSA, should the BCC fail to resolve the conflicting provisions before the current Congress adjourns, it would take another long process for the amendments to pass in the next Congress and thus deprive the Philippine economy of much needed investments.
Joseph Gamboa is the chairman of the Finex Media Affairs Committee and director of Noble Asia Industrial Corp. The views Gamboa expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions and the BusinessMirror. #FinexPhils www.finex.org.ph.