LEDAC commits to pass top priority bills before current session ends—Palace

Malacañang said on Tuesday, June 25, that the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) has committed to pass top priority bills before the current session ends. 

Palace announced this following the fifth LEDAC meeting presided by President Marcos on Tuesday.

During the meeting, LEDAC, which is chaired by Marcos, discussed the status of the 25 priority bills agreed upon last year.

“The council came up with a list of top priority bills that the members, the leaders of both Congress commit to pass within the remaining period of the current session,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

“So, these are 10 bills that are considered top priority. And there’s a second list that consists of another 10. I think that's another 10 bills. And also the other bills that are in advanced stages. That are either at the bicam stages or already enrolled bill[s].”

Among the proposed top priorities for passage before the end of the 19th Congress are the Reform to Philippine Capital Markets, Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, Amendments to the Right-of-Way Act, Excise Tax on Single-Use Plastics, Rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime, Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), Department of Water Resources, CREATE MORE Act, Amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease Act, and Amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

Comprising the second list of priorities are the Blue Economy Act, Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act, Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act, Open Access in Data Transmission Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel, E-Government Act/E-Governance Act, Amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law, and the Philippine Immigration Act.

Other bills on advance stages of deliberation are Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act, Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, Self-Reliant Defense Posture Revitalization Act, Philippine Maritime Zones Act, Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act, VAT on Digital Services and New Government Auditing Code. 

So far, 17 Common Legislative Agenda (CLA) bills were signed into law out of the 59 LEDAC CLA bills proposed for passage in the 19th Congress. 

Balisacan described the meeting as productive and full of enthusiasm. 

 “We see the current leadership of Congress responding to these needs of our economy, of our society, so that we can achieve the socioeconomic transformation that is a program under the Marcos administration,” he said.