FEDERALISM and the rice- tariffication bill are among the expected priority legislative agenda that President Duterte will push in his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 23, Malacañang said.
Aside from these two, Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said in a briefing on Thursday the President is also expected to discuss the Bangsamoro organic law (BOL) on Sona day.
Roque said the President will sign the BOL before he delivers his Sona and after the two chambers of Congress ratify the measure on the morning of Monday.
“Well, that will have to be the procedure because both Houses will meet separately to open the Third Regular Session of the 17th Congress, and the ratification will happen there,” Roque said.
The bicameral conference committee approved late Wednesday night their version of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which was renamed as the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) or the BOL.
On federalism, the President’s Consultative Committee has submitted their proposed draft Federal Constitution on July 9. It was also able to give copies to both the House and the Senate. Con-com also expects their draft to be endorsed formally during the
President’s Sona.
The Con-com’s draft is just “recommendatory,” however, and the mode of revising the Constitution whether through Constituent Assembly or Constitutional Convention must still be finalized.
Meanwhile, the rice-tariffication bill, Roque said, is “an administration bill which has not seen the light of day.”
Roque had earlier said that Duterte will be able to finish reading his Sona speech in under 35 minutes.
The administration’s achievements were laid out during the three pre-Sona forums held this month at the Philippine International Convention Center in order to give the President the freedom to say whatever he wants in his Sona.