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Critics
repeatedly chided the Senate for taking up too much time
conducting investigations and neglecting its primary
duty, which is to craft laws. Remember Malacañang’s
mantra whenever the Senate put government officials on
the hot seat? The constant line was that senators,
especially those identified with the opposition, were
merely after “grandstanding in aid of reelection.”
But
Senate President Manny Villar disputes Malacañang’s
infelicitous insinuations, saying that the record of the
chamber during its first regular session can stand
rigorous scrutiny. With more than 30 bills passed,
compared with 16 bills approved during the first regular
session of the 12th Congress and only eight in the same
period in the 13th Congress, the Senate has performed
creditably, Villar says.
A
listing of the key bills recently passed by the Senate
shows that, indeed, the senators have not been remiss in
their lawmaking function.
There
is, of course, the Cheaper Medicines Act, which seeks to
put the prices of drugs within the reach of poor
Filipinos. There’s also RA 9504, which exempts
minimum-wage earners in both the public and private
sectors from paying income tax. Another significant
measure is the extension of the Agricultural
Competitiveness Fund, or Acef, which provides funds for
irrigation, farm-to-market roads and postharvest
facilities to enhance the country’s agricultural
competitiveness.
But my
guess is that Villar, a self-made billionaire whose
consistent advocacy of entrepreneurship is epitomized by
the catchy slogan “Sipag at Tiyaga,” may have personally
shepherded Senate Bill 1646, or the Magna Carta for
Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (MSMEs), which was
signed into law in May.
This
piece of legislation will boost entrepreneurship in the
country as it addresses the problem of lack of capital
and access to credit. It is worthwhile to point out that
MSMEs make up 99 percent of economic activity, with
micro enterprises comprising 92 percent. RA 9501
requires banks and lending institutions to allocate at
least 8 percent of their loan portfolio to micro and
small enterprises, superseding the previous requirement
of only a 6-percent minimum allocation for micro and
small enterprises and a minimum of 2 percent for medium
enterprises.
The new
law also requires the government to provide adequate
support to MSMEs through credit facilities with less
burdensome collateral requirements, access to new
technologies and regular entrepreneurship training
programs for workers. RA 9501 also provides for a
comprehensive development plan that would ensure the
long-term growth and viability of small and medium
businesses in the country.
The
passage of this and other bills by the Senate
effectively debunks the notion that all the while,
senators have reneged on their lawmaking duties and were
merely grandstanding before TV cameras during probes of
official corruption.
The
people expect the Senate not only to check the excesses
of the two other branches of government, but also to be
a trailblazer. The Senate should be an incubator of new
ideas and new ways of doing things. Senators really
ought to spend more time doing research and exploring
novel approaches to governance and development. That’s
what they’re there for, if you ask me. If they can’t,
maybe they should be planting kamote somewhere, and not
even think about running for the highest position in the
land.
Changing
of the guard at SSS: Was Meralco the cause?
How true
is the rumor that Corazon de la Paz-Bernardo, who bows
out as CEO of the Social Security System (SSS) at the
close of business day on July 31, was booted out of the
private pension fund because she did not want to be
involved in the cabal to take over the Manila Electric
Co. (Meralco), the biggest power-distribution company in
the country?
According to the grapevine, GMA’s economic team
approached de la Paz-Bernardo to buy more of the shares
of stock of Meralco being traded at the Philippine Stock
Exchange so they could effectively take control of
Meralco management. But de la Paz-Bernardo reportedly
said she saw no need to increase the SSS share in the
power-distribution firm, and that the private pension
fund was not interested in running another corporation.
Besides, she said, the SSS can only buy shares of
profitable companies. At the time, Meralco shares were
trading at P42 per share, a considerable decline from
P83 per share three months before, because of the very
public Winston Garcia-Lopez family tiff.
With
Romulo Neri, former National Economic and Development
Authority (Neda) director general and currently
Commission on Higher Education chairman, due to replace
de la Paz-Bernardo at the helm of the SSS on August 1,
will the failed Meralco takeover bid spring back to
life, this time on a combined GSIS-SSS frontal assault?
De la
Paz-Bernardo has told SSS workers to be vigilant and
resist any attempt to use its funds for purposes other
than those stipulated in its charter. But with Neri
given the SSS post by Mrs. Arroyo, apparently as a token
of her gratitude for his clamming up on the
controversial NBN-ZTE deal under the cover of executive
privilege, will SSS funds be used to mount another
attack on Meralco, or even be funneled to other
government projects that would make the ruling party
look good in the eyes of the electorate come 2010?
Abangan.
E-mail:
ernhil@yahoo.com |
