Aquino needs more time to fix legislative agenda

Despite Tuesday’s full Cabinet meeting — the administration’s first for 2011 and third since taking over government on June 30 — President Benigno Aquino III needs more time to sift through over a hundred proposed measures and pick 20 priority bills that will form his administration’s final legislative agenda. He wants to be judicious in exercising his power to certify bills as urgent, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said after the meeting that served as a preparation for the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting later this month. “He mentioned early on that he wants to be careful in exercising the certification powers," Valte said. The proposed measures in the legislative agenda will be prioritized by Congress. Members of the House of Representatives will push for 20 priority bills when they meet with their counterparts in the Senate and Malacañang officials at the council. Chamber leaders are still in the process of choosing 20 priority bills from the 132 suggested by heads of various House panels, said House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. “We are still in the process of studying which measure we will prioritize, but we are at the stage of the game when we have an idea which bills we will bring to the LEDAC," he told reporters Tuesday. House leaders used President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year to draw up a list of priority bills, according to the House speaker. Bills identified in SONA Among the bills Aquino identified in his first SONA are those designed to strengthen the Witness Protection Program, the National Land Use Bill, the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, and the Whistleblower’s Bill. During Tuesday’s meeting in Malacañang, the President and his Cabinet discussed which of the proposed legislations should be included in the agenda. Based on the concerns of their respective agencies, Cabinet officials were earlier formed five clusters that included human development, infrastructure development, economic development, good governance, and sovereignty and rule of law to study the pending measures. According to Aquino, he preferred to meet with his Cabinet secretaries by clusters instead of holding weekly full Cabinet meetings. The clusters were headed by Vice President Jejomar Binay (human development), Economic Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. (economic development), Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson (infrastructure development), Justice Secretary Leila De Lima (rule of law, and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa (good governance). The Cabinet cluster heads presented their recommendations to the President during Tuesday’s meeting. The House contingent to the council consists of the Speaker and three other congressmen, with at least one of them belonging to the minority bloc. Aquino's first LEDAC This month’s LEDAC is the first that Aquino will convene to set his administration’s legislative priorities. “I assume that the President would want a little more time because he asked some further details from some of the measures," said Valte, who attended the Cabinet meeting that started at 11:30 a.m. and finished around 5 p.m. She said President Aquino asked for a draft of certain proposed measures and to see more studies or figures in the other proposals. “After this, I think we would have more or less a working structure, a working list of what the priority measures will be (but) there will be no final list yet," she added. Valte told reporters she did not see the human rights compensation bill on the list of measures that will be recommended to the President. “I’m not sure if that was already brought up to him. I did not see sa list kanina under human development." Created in 1992 under Republic Act 7640, 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. As a consultative and advisory body, the LEDAC serves to help the President integrate his legislative agenda with the national development plan, among others. It is supposed to convene quarterly. — VS/KBK, GMANews.TV