President Marcos has urged lawmakers to urgently pass another set of priority legislation, which he mentioned in his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona), as Congress resumed sessions on Monday.
According to the Presidential Communications Office, among the key pieces of legislation being pushed by the President are the amendments to the National Building Code, the Progress Bill to exempt employees earning up to P350,000 annually from paying income tax, the General Tax Amnesty and the ‘Sariling Kuryente’ Act.
Also part of Marcos’ priority bills are the amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform law to stop system loss and value-added tax from being passed on to consumers, as well as amendments to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act to support modern waste management practices, including waste-to-energy and waste treatment technologies.
Malacañang has yet to announce if any of these bills were certified urgent, which allows the House of Representatives and the Senate to approve a bill on second and third reading on the same day, bypassing the usual three-day waiting period.
Except for the Progress Bill and Sariling Kuryente Act, the four other pieces of legislation are part of the 52 priority measures approved by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) under the current 20th Congress.
Of the 52 Ledac priority bills, only two have been signed into law by Mr. Marcos: Republic Act No. 12316, which authorized him to suspend or reduce excise on petroleum products; and RA 12317, which reset the first regular elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
On the other hand, the bill amending the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act already hurdled the bicameral conference committee deliberations and is in the process of being enrolled into its final version followed by its submission to Malacañang