CRANE-Caramoan

Scores of important bills beneficial to Camarines Sur constituents and the rest of Bicolanos have been delayed in the Senate and have become part of hundreds of other bills of national and local application that are gathering dusts because senators have been preoccupied with activities other than lawmaking.

Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte (2nd District, Cam. Sur) lamented that he succeeded in having a number of urgent bills passed in the House of Representatives only to find them unacted upon in the Upper House.

In 2004 alone, Congressman Villafuerte filed a total of 75 bills and resolutions related to education, environment, tourism, livelihood, youth and sports, health, energy and trade and industry.

One such bill involved the conversion of the Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road into a national road. It is intended to ensure that each year the coastal road whose completion is anticipated soon will have regular funding allocation.

The bill was passed in the Lower house last year after it was filed on the request of the Caramoan Residents Association in Naga City and its Environs (CRANE).

A shift to a unicameral parliament which can be achieved through Charter Change is thus the key to speedier economic growth and development in the country.

This is the pervading consensus as government leaders pointed out that senators habitually failed to deliberate on urgent bills after spending most of their time conducting investigations and inquiries. The gridlock would be avoided if a unified parliament would perform the legislative function.

Metropolitan newspapers reported Monday, May 29, that in two years Senate passed only a measly 9 bills out of 2,240 submitted to the Upper House after they have been passed by the House of Representatives.

A total of 51 bills of national application and 708 bills of local application have been gathering dusts in the 13th Congress since July, 2004.

Among such bills considered urgent and very significant are the General Appropriations Act of 2006, the Anti-terrorism Act of 2005, the Bioenthanol Fuel Act. of 2005, the Investment Incentive Code of the Philippines and the Anti-Smuggling Act of 2005.

Delay in the passage of bills in the Senate has been a habitual occurrence such that when computed each bill ultimately passed costs the government P700 million in taxpayers’ money.

Vital bills that would have been beneficial to Camarines Sur residents are among those gathering cobwebs in the Senate.

These include the bills upgrading CSSAC into a state university and another bill making BCAT a separate state college.
Most senators have little time to perform legitimate legislative works because of the unending Senate investigations on various issues purportedly in aid of legislation but in reality intended to push political agenda or allow some grandstanding senators to hug the headlines.

As a result, the legislative process has been greatly hampered as may be easily gleaned from the very low Senate output.