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PRESIDENT Arroyo will convene Tuesday the
Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac)
for its first meeting this year.
The
meeting is expected to focus on the price and supply of
basic commodities and discuss the status of the
Executive-Legislative Common Legislative Agenda (CLA).
Deputy
Presidential Spokesman Lorelei Fajardo said in a
statement that around nine senators and 50 congressmen
are expected to attend the Ledac meeting, which is
ideally held every quarter.
“The
agenda items include an update on the CLA and a
situationer on the price and supply of basic
commodities,” Fajardo said.
Malacañang officials declined to specify the priority
bills to be discussed during the meeting, but Speaker
Prospero Nograles earlier urged the President to convene
the Ledac to resolve differences between the Executive
branch and Congress over the proposed baselines bill
defining the archipelagic baselines of the country in
conformity with the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea (Unclos).
Malacañang is seeking the exclusion of the Kalayaan
Island Group and Scarborough Shoal from the country’s
archipelagic baselines, which it insists would not
weaken the Philippine claim over the disputed area,
while lawmakers are for their inclusion.
The
Ledac last met on December 11 last year, where Congress
leaders agreed to focus on 10 priority bills before they
take their Christmas break.
Of the
10 priority measures, only the Civil Aviation Act, the
2008 General Appropriations Act, the Agricultural
Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (Acef) and the
Filipino World War II Veterans’ Pensions and Benefits
Act of 2008 have been signed into law, while the amended
University of the Philippines Charter is still being
prepared for signing.
The
other priority measures in the CLA forged by the Ledac
in August last year that have yet to be passed include
the cheaper medicine bill,
amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act,
the amnesty bill, Personal Equity and Retirement
Account bill, Credit Information System Act, the Magna
Carta for Small and Medium Enterprises and the Customs
Broker Law.
Other
measures in the CLA are the ratification of the
Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement,
Simplified Net Income Taxation, rationalization of
fiscal incentives, the National Tourism Policy, National
Strategy to Conserve Resources and Help Arrest Climate
Change, renewable energy, Land Use Act, antitrust laws
and promotion of information technology entrepreneurial
ventures.
Priority
bills on education reform and social equity are on
long-term care for senior citizens, poll-watchdog fund,
stiffer penalties for election violence, farmland as
loan collateral, reversal of the devolution of district
hospitals and a review of the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform law, the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization
Act and the agri-agra law.
On peace
and order and the rule of law, the priority bills are on
strengthening the Witness Protection Program, creating
special courts for the speedy administration of justice,
providing stiffer penalties for political killings and
the imposing the harshest penalties for rogues in
uniform. |
