The Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) should improve its coordination with the Palace and Congress to ensure coordinated efforts between the two branches of government in crafting laws.
At the continuation of the Senate’s hearing on the proposed P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021, Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon urged the PLLO to be more active and attentive in coordinating with Congress. He said its sluggish performance has ultimately led to presidential veto of some pieces of legislation and non-implementation of laws due to issues on implementing rules and regulations.
Drilon noted that the PLLO lacks direct access to the Office of the President, and is often bypassed in the lawmaking process.
“It is quite obvious there was a wide gap in the ability of the PLLO coordinate the efforts of congressmen and the Senate with the Executive branch,” Drilon pointed out during the hearing.
“This is a sad state, because that is precisely the role of the PLLO to coordinate between the two branches, so that we can do our work better,” the minority leader said.
Senators recalled that in February last year, President Duterte vetoed the coconut levy fund bill, which seeks to create a P100-billion trust fund for coconut farmers, due to “lack of vital safeguards” much to the dismay of Sen. Cynthia Villar, who was the primary proponent of the measure.
PLLO Secretary Adelino Sitoy explained that some Cabinet members had opposed some aspect of the coco levy bill, and the President ultimately listened to the view of the government cluster.
“During our meeting with Sen. (Cynthia) Villar, we articulated to her the position of some members of the cabinet cluster, but her immediate response was (let the President) veto the bill. That was her reaction. Nevertheless, we tried our efforts we tried our best to iron out the bill but ultimately the Executive department vetoed the bill,” Sitoy said.
As to the reason why it was vetoed, Sitoy said the basis of the veto was not articulated in advance to their office.
“But notwithstanding that tragedy, we have exerted efforts in the matter of coordination with respect to other bills,” the PLLO chief said.
“We are seeking improvement of the process, and in fact we have asked the cabinet secretaries to advise us in advance regarding their position paper with respect to any bill that is pending in Congress,” he said.
Drilon, however, lamented that it was clear the PLLO chief has no direct access to the President: “If he did, and he relayed this to Sen. Villar, (she) would have listened being an ally of the President.”
“…It simply indicates that Sen. Villar was blindsided as to what the President’s policy was. And the blindsiding was caused principally because the PLLO was not a recipient (of adequate guidance) as to the policies of the President,” the Senate minority chief added.
Drilon said he hopes this would not happen again as the measure is now being reviewed and debated in the Senate and would eventually be submitted again to the President.
“We hope that there is closer coordination and liaison so that it will not suffer the same fate,” said Drilon, adding that it is the people who will ultimately suffer due to its inability to resolve conflicting policies resulting to unnecessary vetoes.
“I hope Secretary Sitoy can take these comments to heart. At least, these comments were made in the hope that we can improve our working relationship with Malacañang,” he said.
“It’s such a waste of time if the piece of legislation which we have worked on is vetoed by the President. Of course, that is the prerogative of the President, but a more active PLLO can save us time and effort by already pointing out which part of the law is contrary to the policies of the government,” Drilon stressed.