Palace to hold Cabinet 'workshop' on priority bills

Cabinet members will convene a “workshop" on Monday to discuss proposed legislation they want Congress to prioritize, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said Friday. The workshop will be conducted in preparation for the first Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting under the Aquino administration, Ochoa said in a statement. "The purpose of this workshop is for us to integrate, review, refine and prioritize proposed legislations," he said. The LEDAC was created in 1992 under R.A. 7640 as a consultative and advisory body to help the President integrate his legislative agenda with the national development plan, among others. Ochoa said the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) has so far received 147 proposed legislations from various departments, as well as 41 proposed legislations from the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines. The Palace official said he hopes the number of priority measures will be trimmed down to 25, or five for each of the following “critical areas": human development; infrastructure development; economic development; sovereignty, security and rule of law; and good governance. Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said his department is hoping to push for the passage of the fiscal responsibility bill, which will require proposed legislation to have an expenditure feature, and the bill on the rationalization of incentives. "We do believe that in some case incentives are necessary and we're working closely with the Department of Trade and Industry to make sure they submit a common position on this. But there may be instances where we don't have to grant incentives; we're just wasting potential revenue of government. And that's why we are going to push for such a law," Purisima said. The LEDAC was originally scheduled to meet in November last year, but it did not push through although no reasons were given for the postponement. Leaders of Congress, which will resume session on January 17, have already chosen the two chambers’ representatives to the LEDAC. President Benigno Aquino III has previously said the LEDAC will likely convene before the end of the month. The advisory council is composed of the President as chairman, the vice president, the Senate president, the House Speaker, seven Cabinet members, three senators, three House members, and one representative each from the local government, the youth, and the private sector.—Jam L. Sisante/JV, GMANews.TV