Senators tackled at length on Tuesday’s plenary session a Concurrent Resolution sponsored by Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri requesting the office of President Duterte to return enrolled copies of a bill passed by the Senate and the House creating a Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Trust Fund.
Zubiri’s proposal seeks to “enable Congress to introduce an amendment that it failed to include during the bicameral conference” on the bill and to avert a presidential veto of the measure.
Under interpellation by Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon, the proponents admitted “overlooking” some provisions in the bill.
“We want to review the performance of the law over a period of time,” Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, co-sponsor of the measure, said, admitting during the interpellations: “We are only human; we make mistakes, we are not perfect.”
The Zubiri resolution noted that the enrolled copies of Senate Bill 1233 and House Bill 5745 creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Trust Fund were sent to the Office of the President through the Presidential Legislative Liason Office (PLLO) for the signature and approval of President Duterte.
“After a careful perusal of the enrolled bill submitted to the Office of the President, it was found out that a major amendment to the bill was not included in the Bicameral Conference Committee Report.” the Resolution stated, adding: “there is a need to withdraw the enrolled bill to enable Congress to reconsider its approval and introduce a major amendment which it failed to include in the Bicameral Conference Committee.”
Zubiri confirmed that they held a meeting with President Duterte on Monday night “to avert a possible veto of a bill, which is the coco levy fund use,” noting that Malacañang was poised to veto what he billed as “a landmark measure on how to use the coco levy fund. We are now committed to recalling the measure, reconsidering it and bringing it back to the bicam which we will reconstitute today [Wednesday].”
Zubiri explained that the recall will enable the Senate to “correct an oversight in the coco levy regarding the P10-billion fund that was overlooked, including a sunset provision.”
Drilon disputed the justification for recalling the bill, saying he “could not accept it.”
“I don’t think we overlooked it because this is a fund of coconut farmers, it came from them,” Drilon said, adding, “there is a sunset clause. It was not overlooked. We dont accept that the majority overlooked the sunset clause.”
Zubiri, however, explained that the P10 billion is “a new fund created by law and not from the coco levy.”
Villar added that it was their House counterparts in the bicameral panel that asked for inclusion of the provision. “They asked us to reconsider, and we granted it.”
But Drilon disagreed, saying: “I am sorry, I cannot accept that reason.”
In turn, Zubiri blamed the snafu on the PLLO, saying: “the problem is we have a weak PLLO.”
Drilon, in turn, reminded his colleagues that “it is not a good precedent to rely on the competence of the PLLO.”