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MALACAÑANG said on Tuesday that lawmakers have agreed to
target by May 1 the passage of two administration
priority bills seeking instant relief for ordinary
people struggling with rising living costs—the bills on
cheaper medicine and income-tax exemption for
minimum-wage earners.
Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye also said the
Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac),
in its first meeting for the year, approved a
“reconstituted” Common Legislative Agenda (CLA) of 17
“doable” measures plus others for improving food
production in the country.
“Of the
reconstituted 17 items in the CLA, it was agreed to
target measures by May 1, 2008. These are the affordable
quality medicines and income-tax exemption minimum wage
earners,” Bunye said in a news briefing right after the
Ledac meeting.
He said
the bills do not yet include the baselines bill, to be
taken up at a separate meeting before June as it “is a
very complicated issue and it might not be appropriate
to lump this issue together with other concerns being
discussed in the Ledac meeting.”
Upon the
request of Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, a
pre-Ledac meeting was held on April 18 presided over by
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to review the CLA,
where the target passage date of the two measures was
first proposed for consideration of the Ledac.
Aside
from the bills targeted for enactment by Labor Day,
other measures in the new CLA to be targeted for
approval before the end of the first regular session of
the 14th Congress in June are “leftover” priority bills
in the original CLA on amendments to the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act, amnesty proclamation, Credit
Information System, establishment of the Personal Equity
Retirement Account, amendments to the Customs Brokers
Act, renewable energy and the national tourism policy.
Bunye said nine other measures, including the income-tax
exemption for minimum-wage earners, were included in the
reconstituted CLA: CARP extension, amendments to the
Consumer Act, the strengthening of the Office of the
Ombudsman, an Antismuggling Act, stiffer penalties for
illegal possession of explosives and parts, fire
protection modernization and measures recommended by the
United Nations Human Rights Council, the Magna Carta for
women and Witness Protection Act. |
