PRIORITY BILLS. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is hopeful Congress would heed his name to pass a minimum of 19 priority measures of his administration throughout his first Statement of the Nation Address (SONA) on the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City on Monday (July 25, 2022). Marcos overwhelmingly received the May 9, 2022 presidential election. (Presidential photograph)
#PBBMSONA2022 MANILA – President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Monday expressed hope that Congress would heed his name to pass a minimum of 19 priority measures of his administration. This, as Marcos enumerated his administration’s priority legislative measures in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA). “As I’m right here right this moment addressing the legislature, let me suggest laws that we want for you to pass,” he stated in his SONA delivered earlier than lawmakers on the plenary of the House of Representatives. Better authorities providers Marcos pushed for the passage of payments that may assist enhance the federal government providers below his management. The proposed National Government Rightsizing Program (NGRP), the Budget Modernization invoice, the proposed E-Government Act, and the proposed E-Governance Act are among the many measures aimed toward bettering service supply in authorities, Marcos stated. The NGRP is a reform mechanism that seeks to improve the federal government’s institutional capability to carry out its mandate and supply higher providers, whereas guaranteeing optimum and environment friendly use of sources. The rightsizing efforts, Marcos stated, will contain the conduct of a “complete” strategic assessment of capabilities, applications and tasks that may lower throughout varied companies. “Compared to earlier authorities reorganization efforts, the NGRP will entail a complete strategic assessment of the capabilities, operations, group, techniques and processes of the completely different companies, and large and transformational initiatives in companies involved, similar to merger, consolidation, splitting, switch, and abolition of some workplaces,” he stated. Marcos stated the proposed Budget Modernization regulation will institutionalize the Cash-based Budgeting System (CBS), which was adopted by advantage of Executive Order 91 signed in 2019, to strengthen fiscal self-discipline within the allocation and use of price range sources. He stated the measure would make sure that each peso budgeted by the federal government would lead to the precise supply of applications and tasks. “The full implementation of the CBS is well timed and important as the federal government executes response and restoration plans post- pandemic,” Marcos stated. Marcos additionally requested Congress to help the proposed E-Government Act which gives for the institution of the E-Government Master Plan which shall cowl all e-government providers and processes. The proposed E-Governance Act, then again, goals to promote the usage of Internet, Intranet, and different Information and Communications Technology to present alternatives for residents. New departments, workplaces Marcos additionally sought the passage of measures creating the Virology Institute of the Philippines (VIP) and the Department of Water Resources (DWR). The proposed VIP, he stated, would function an hooked up company of then Department of Science and Technology (DOST). “All workplaces and models below the DOST with capabilities associated to virology shall be transferred to the VIP,” Marcos stated. On the opposite hand, the proposed Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) shall be adopted because the strategic framework for nationwide water administration, policymaking and planning, as soon as the DWR is created, Marcos stated. Marcos additionally talked about that the creation of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and the Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), which shall be hooked up to the Department of Health (DOH), are additionally amongst his authorities’s priorities. The MRC, which shall be below the Health and Emergency Management Bureau (HEMB) of the DOH, shall be composed of licensed physicians, medical college students who’ve accomplished their 4 years of medical course, graduates of drugs, registered nurses, and licensed allied well being professionals. Tax reforms Marcos likewise expressed optimism that the lawmakers would again the Tax Package 3: Valuation Reform Bill and the Tax Package 4: Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA). The Valuation Reform invoice seeks the institution of actual property values and valuation requirements throughout the nation, in addition to the event of Real Property Information System that gives for the database of all actual property transactions and declarations within the nation. The proposed PIFITA, then again, goals to introduce reforms to the taxation of capital revenue and monetary providers by redesigning the monetary sector taxation into “less complicated, fairer, extra environment friendly and a income impartial tax system.” Businesses The different priority measures of the Marcos administration embody the proposed Internet Transaction Act or E-Commerce Law, in addition to the Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE). The E-Commerce Law goals the institution of an efficient regulation of economic actions by the web or digital means, Marcos stated. The GUIDE invoice, meantime, seeks to present monetary help to distressed enterprises important to financial restoration by applications and initiatives that shall be carried out by the Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines and Philippine Guarantee Corporation. Marcos additionally pushed for a measure introducing amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law, in an effort to enhance the implementation of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Program and align the specified outputs and outcomes with the strategic improvement targets of the nation. The amendments, he stated, would tackle the ambiguities within the current regulation and the bottlenecks and challenges affecting the implementation of the PPP Program. Marcos added that amending the BOT Law would create a “extra aggressive and enabling surroundings” for PPP. Energy sector Marcos additionally expressed optimism that Congress would help the enactment of an enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry. “This primarily seeks to foster the event of the Midstream Natural Gas Industry in a bid to strengthen Philippine vitality safety by diversifying the nation’s main sources of vitality and selling the position of pure fuel as a complementary gasoline to variable renewable vitality,” he stated. He additionally requested the legislators to amend Republic Act (RA) 9136, in any other case often called the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA, to enhance the implementation of the regulation’s provisions and improve its effectiveness to tackle excessive value of electrical energy, alleged market collusion, and inadequate energy provide. “The invoice seeks to restructure the Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) to foster accountability and enhance the fee’s authorities system that may guarantee shopper safety and in enhancing the aggressive operation of the electrical energy market,” Marcos stated. Developing lands, protection sector Marcos stated he additionally expects each the Senate and the House of Representatives to help the proposed National Land Use Act, the proposed National Defense Act, and the proposed Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP). The proposed National Land Use Act gives for a “rational and holistic” administration and improvement of nation’s land and water sources; maintain house owners accountable for making lands “productive and sustainable”; strengthen the native authorities models to handle ecological stability inside its jurisdiction. “It additionally gives for Land Use and Physical Planning/Framework as a mechanism in figuring out insurance policies and ideas to implement this legislative measure,” Marcos stated. On the opposite hand, the National Defense Act seeks amendments to the antiquated National Defense Act of 1935 to present for a change within the army construction of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, making it “extra responsive to present and future non-conventional safety threats to the nation’s territorial integrity and nationwide sovereignty,” Marcos stated. Marcos additionally careworn the necessity to reinstitute the ROTC program as necessary part of senior highschool applications (Grades 11 and 12) in all private and non-private tertiary-level instructional establishments. “The goal is to inspire, prepare, arrange and mobilize the scholars for nationwide protection preparedness, together with catastrophe preparedness and capability constructing for risk-related conditions,” he stated. He likewise needed to institutionalize the United System of Separation, (*19*) and Pension which can grant a month-to-month incapacity pension, in lieu of incapacity advantages supplied below current legal guidelines, for army and uniformed personnel (MUPs) retired by causes of incapacity. (PNA)
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1179709
