Congress Passes Even Fewer Laws On Bigger Budget

by LALA ORDENES-CASCOLAN


DISMAL LAWMAKING. The 13th Congress passed the lowest number of bills of both national and local importance since 1987. Of the 84 bills it was able to enact into law, only 32 were of national significance.

A SINGLE law now costs the Filipino people about P148.94 million.

That’s based on the budgetary allocation given to the present Congress, which is P12.51 billion, and the number of laws it has passed so far, which is 84. Compared to its immediate predecessor, the 13th Congress had an allocation that was bigger by P1.27 billion. Yet it is 89 laws short of the accomplishments of the 12th Congress, which had posted the lowest output since the restoration of a bicameral legislature. That is, until this Congress, which has only three sessions to go once it resumes in June.

This year marks the centennial of the Congress of the Philippines. But judging from the performance of even just the present legislature, there may be little reason to celebrate.

Admittedly, Congress has non-legislative powers, including those to canvass the presidential elections, declare the existence of a state of war, give concurrence to treaties and amnesties, propose constitutional amendments, and impeach. In fact, if one includes the allocations for the Senate and House of Representatives Electoral Tribunals, as well as that for the Commission on Appointments, then one would end up with an even bigger figure as the Congress budget (for the present, around P13.56 billion). But the enactment of laws is the primary purpose of Congress, and its reason for being. Hence, lawmaking is ultimately the yardstick by which the legislature will be measured to determine whether or not it has been fulfilling its mandate.

Unfortunately, it looks like it has not. Since the adoption of the 1987 Constitution, the Congress of the Philippines has been passing fewer and fewer laws while appropriating more and more funds for itself. Worse, quality has not made up for the scant number of laws passed. Of the 84 republic acts enacted by the present Congress — out of 6,114 bills filed — only 32 are of national implication.

The rest of the laws are of local application: 12 republic acts pertain to franchise grants, like Republic Act 9368 (An Act Granting the Mindanao Jockey and Country Club Inc., a Franchise to Construct, Operate and Maintain a Racetrack for Horse Racing in Davao City). There are now also seven new laws declaring non-working holidays in seven different local governments, like R.A. 9413 (An Act Declaring April 3 of Every Year a Special Holiday in the Municipality of Luisiana, Province of Laguna to Celebrate the Araw ng Lubusang Kalayaan Bilang Bayan ng Luisiana, Laguna and the Pandanan Festival).

Fifteen laws, meanwhile, are on the conversion of various municipalities to highly urbanized or component cities. This means that the cost of converting the municipality of Baybay in Leyte into a component city is almost twice as much as the town’s annual income of less than P100 million.

Lawmaking has been relegated to a secondary or even tertiary endeavor in the House, as evidenced by the declining number of bills filed and eventually enacted into law.

PAROCHIAL OVER NATIONAL

This continues the trend tracked in the 2004 PCIJ book The Rulemakers, a study on the Philippine Congress: district concerns, rather than national ones, are given more importance by the legislature. Yet as Social Watch Philippines Executive Director and University of the Philippines Professor Leonor Briones points out, “Congress is not the Congress of the District of so-and-so. It is the Congress of the Philippines.”

But since legislators do not look beyond the next elections, crafting policies that would have an impact at the national level does not seem to be their primary concern. Instead, they are more interested in “bringing home the bacon,” as one legislator says, or providing constituency rather than legislative services.

Batanes Representative Henedina Abad admits that for most of her colleagues in Congress, the goal is to bring funds for school buildings, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure projects that would be tangible and visible come election time. “In fact, representatives of the House can be re-elected without even being present in Congress, without saying anything in session or in their respective committees,” says Abad, who has filed and co-authored 34 national bills and three local bills.

It is true, though, that since 1987, the share of local bills in the total number filed has dropped while that of national bills has risen. (See Table 3) Yet because parochial concerns are given paramount consideration in Congress, matters of national significance languish and more local bills are passed.

Briones does comment, “If Congress faithfully performs its function of passing the national budget on time, and does nothing else, I would agree that it has performed well.” After all, she says, “the most important function of Congress is to pass the appropriations bill.”

Yet the legislature has been remiss even in this basic function. For the past five years, the budget — the government’s lifeblood — has never been passed on time. Budgets have been re-enacted again and again. The 2000 budget was re-enacted for both the 2001 and 2002 fiscal years. The 2007 budget was finally passed three months behind schedule. And when the 2006 budget was re-enacted, it was actually the 2005 re-enacted budget for 2006.

DISMAL QUALITY AND QUANTITY

In any case, House Speaker Jose de Venecia has said the Senate is to blame for the declining number of laws passed. In a Lower House accomplishment report from July 2005 to June 2006, he pointed out that the Senate had failed to act on more than 820 bills submitted to it by the House of Representatives.


SENATE TO BLAME. House Speaker Jose de Venecia has blamed the Senate for the declining number of laws passed, pointing out that the Upper Chamber had failed to act on more than 820 bills submitted by the House of Representatives.

Political analyst Ramon Casiple, however, says the Senate simply had no time to work on the bills because these had been submitted to it at the last minute. Still, he says, both Houses are equally guilty for the low output, and should not play the blame game “to gain political points against each other.”

As it is, legislators themselves admit that the fewer and fewer laws Congress has been passing have been far from perfect. Commenting on those passed by the 13th Congress, Representative Edcel Lagman of the 1st District of Albay says, “There is not much deliberation on the bills. This is why, what is harnessed as a final version might be defective or of inferior quality.”

This observation is shared by Representative Nereus Acosta, Jr. of the 1st District of Bukidnon. “Dismal” is how he characterized the present Congress’s legislative performance. Acosta, who has been a member of the House of Representatives for three consecutive terms, observes that Congress is no longer conducive to policy deliberations; it has become a venue for political bickering.

Abad agrees. “Deliberations in the House of Representatives are bereft of policy discussions,” she says. “Congress is no longer a marketplace for ideas but a marketplace in haggling for funds for our respective districts.”

Lack of a clear legislative agenda only contributes to Congress’s deteriorating performance. The Rulemakers showed a determined president who has specific legislative objectives could have an impact on Congress’s performance. The Ninth and 10th Congresses under the Ramos presidency posted the best legislative record since 1986.

The 13th Congress convened in the middle of a political crisis, amid the question of legitimacy on the Philippine presidency. At the opening of the 2nd Regular Session of the 13th Congress, the Speaker of the House had only one clear legislative goal: a shift in the country’s political system to federalism. Asked what the priorities of the 13th Congress were, Acosta replies, “I’m not even sure if Congress had priorities.”

LANGUISHING LAWS

It is no surprise then that important pieces of legislation are largely overlooked. One of those bills has been House Bill 3773, or the Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act of 2005. The bill, once approved, would set in place a national policy that assures adequate and continuing information on reproductive health and a full range of family-planning methods.

The projected Philippine population for 2007, according to the National Statistics Office, is 88.7 million, which makes the country the 12th most populous nation in the world. The Philippines has no comprehensive national policy on population management in place despite the fact that many Filipinos would appreciate one. According to a recent Pulse Asia survey, nine of 10 Filipinos want the government to provide budgetary support for modern methods of family planning.

Foot-dragging on the bill is largely because of “the obstructionist opposition of the Catholic hierarchy,” says Lagman, the bill’s principal author. The bill was co-authored by 112 representatives, or almost half the Lower House’s membership. But the counterpart measure in the Senate has not moved because, Lagman says, “the Senate has a nationwide constituency and they are more affected by the critical attitude of the Church.”

Another bill that has faced serious opposition, this time from the legislators themselves, is the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill. The Philippines has a direct constitutional proscription against the establishment of political dynasties. But 20 years after the adoption of the 1987 Constitution, Congress has yet to enact into law the implementing legislation required by the charter’s Article II, Section 26. For sure the bill had been filed and prioritized time and again as early as the Eighth Congress. Yet with the 13th Congress coming to a close, the bill faces the bleak prospect of being archived for the nth time.

There is at least one political family in almost every province. Nearly 80 percent of the members of the 13th Congress are from political families, according to a GMA Network News Research study. That the Anti-Dynasty Bill has been stuck in a rut for this long is most probably due to the fact that 166 district representatives — or eight out of 10 — are not about to pass legislation that would go against their interest.

Another important piece of legislation that remains pending is the Land Use Act, despite it being categorized as a priority bill since the Ninth Congress. The bill seeks to provide guidelines and criteria for land use based on an assessment of the development needs of competing sectors. There are at least seven pending bills on land use in the 13th Congress alone. No less than the Speaker of the House is the author of the bill in one of its many incarnations. The abstract of House Bill 272 is telling: “There is an urgent need for a land use code that will allocate land to various competing uses, preserve prime farm lands specially irrigated fields for agricultural purposes, and ensure community participation in defining local land use.”

Representative Loretta Ann Rosales of the party-list group Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party offers this as reason why the bill has not moved: “The members of this Congress are owners of real estate businesses.”

SHEER INACTION ALSO TO BLAME

But it is not opposition from various contending parties as much as inaction that kills a bill. Lagman admits that there are proposed laws that stagnate in the House because of indolence: “Inuupuan lang (It’s just sat on).”

This is the fate that befell the Freedom of Access to Information Act, according to Nepomuceno Malaluan, executive director of Action for Economic Reforms and member of Access to Information Network.

Despite the constitutional policy of public disclosure enunciated in Article II, Section 28 of the 1987 Constitution, and the provision in Article II, Section 7 that ensures the right of the people to information on matters of public concern, Congress has yet to come up with the implementing legislation to give teeth to the constitutional mandate.

There are five bills pending in the House of Representatives seeking the implementation of the public’s right to know. Similar bills have been filed as early as the Eighth Congress. Yet, says Malaluan, “we were not as vigilant in pushing for the law.”

A noteworthy accomplishment of the 13th Congress, An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines (R.A. 9346), would have faced a similar conclusion were it not for the intervention of the executive — underscoring the influence of the administration in legislation, and in spite the constitutional dictum that all three branches of government are co-equal and separation of powers is delineated.

Lagman, the bill’s main proponent, and other like-minded legislators, had been pushing for the abolition of the death penalty since the Eighth Congress. But the bill was ignored until President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo endorsed the measure, due largely to pressure exerted by the European Union. The bill was passed in two weeks; the bicameral conference committee finished the bill through telephone communication. Quips Lagman: “If Congress wants to fast track legislation, it can do it.”

Socioeconomic bills apparently do not merit the same speed. The Public Debt Ceiling Act, for example, has gone nowhere, even as the national government’s outstanding debt has kept rising. As of March 2007, it was already at P4 trillion.

Presidential Decree 1177 put the debt payment beyond the purview of the General Appropriations Act, thereby ensuring automatic appropriation for debt servicing, which has eaten up as much as 50 percent of the national budget.

According to an Ateneo Macroeconomic Forum Model study, the Philippines is allotting P721.7 billion in debt service, with P340 billion as interest payments alone. This translates to an allocation of P1.98 billion per day, which, says the study, is equivalent to the building of 7,920 classrooms or 250 kilometers of roads per day.

There are proposed bills seeking to repeal the onerous provisions of P.D. 1177 and to put a cap on expenditures for foreign-debt servicing. A similar bill was filed in the Eighth Congress, but then President Corazon Aquino vetoed it. In the Ninth Congress, House Speaker de Venecia, in order to block the bill’s passage, promised the release of P200 million of the pork barrel to the members of the House.

Lawmaking is a long and tedious process. The victims of martial law human rights violations have learned this the hard way, as they wait for the House of Representatives to pass the bill that would grant them compensation. If the bill is not passed in June, it will be archived. The victims will then have to fight it out again in the 14th Congress, from the gestation period to its desired conclusion: that of being enacted into law.

Prioritization of bills is a legislative prerogative, a political question that cannot be questioned by the executive and the courts. But the ultimate accountability, perhaps, should lie with the people who choose those who sit in Congress.