Monday, July 16, 2007

Law Cost Indeed

By Siesta-friendly

Having been given a budget of P12.51Billion(!), the recently adjourned 13th Congress of the Philippines went to “work” and enacted 148 Republic Acts. No need for praises though. With a budget of P12.51Billion(!), that costs us (taxpayers) oh, only about P84M(!) per law. To compare, the 13th and the 12th Congress (which enacted 172 laws) have produced a combined total of only 320 laws far lower than the laws enacted in eachof the previous Congresses: the 11th enacted 415, the 10th 573, the 9th 536, the 8th (a whopping) 975.

With a total of about 750 working days (for all 3 Regular Sessions), that’s a production rate of about 1 law per week. Taking into account the subject matter of most of these laws, 1 hour or less per law should have been sufficient (at least for most of these laws). How can it take 5 days to rename “Pennsylvania Avenue In The City Of San Fernando, Province Of La Union As Governor Joaquin L. Ortega Avenue”?

108 (or 73%) of these laws were hopelessly local in nature and utterly trivial (to the rest of the country). A breakdown of their categories is listed below to act as stark reminders of where precious national funds and legislative time have been spent (from July 26, 2004 - July 22, 2007).

The 108 local laws involve the never-ending creation of barangays/districts/cities/provinces/tourist zones (29) and the still popular re-naming/converting roads (16) and creating/separating/re-naming schools/universities (16); catching up are laws declaring local holidays (13), adding trial court branches (10) and, granting/amending local franchises (9); and perhaps to show a little diversity are laws creating marine labs/farms/centers (5), granting citizenship (4), converting/upgrading hospitals (3), scheduling ARMM elections (1), amending Marikina’s charter (1), declaring the inclusion by accretion of certain lands in Negros Occidental (1), and confirming the validity of certain TCTs over friar lands in Cebu (1). Don’t forget, that’s P84M(!) per law.

Every now and then, our hardworking lawmakers remembered they constituted the Congress of the entire Philippines and produced 39 laws with national significance. The most number are of course tax fund-related (7) - how else to fund each P84M(!) law-making process. 4 laws grant broadcasting franchises. 4 laws concern labor and 2 laws govern corporate entities. 4 are judicial system-related: 2 laws ‘strengthening’(huh?) legal offices (PAO & OSG), 1 law finally creating ‘A Comprehensive Juvenile Justice And Welfare System’, and the 4th prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty (or should we attribute this particular hard work to the Catholic Church?).

On the peace and order front, there were 3 concerning the military - 1 created a new military rank (whoopee) and another redefined the term ‘veteran’ (hard work indeed) - and, of course, the popular Human Security Act was enacted which, by the way, also defined ‘terrorism’ (much more popular). There were 2 laws on the ‘home’ front - 1 on the Rent Control Act of 2005 and the other amending “The Urban Development And Housing Act”. 2 laws were election-related - 1 of which amends the law on the Automated Election System (a lot of good that’s done so far).

Other acts were of limited national consequence -

“An Act Declaring As Unlawful Any Form Of Cheating In Civil Service Examinations … ” (apparently some forms of cheating were legal before)

“The Volunteer Act of 2007″ (because, obviously, we can’t trust the gov’t to do its job so we must push for volunteers)

“An Act Authorizing The President Of The Philippines To Sell A Certain Parcel Of Land Of The Private Domain Of The National Government To The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation” (whatever)

“An Act … Establishing ..The National Archives Of The Philippines …” (better late than never)

“An Act Defining Handline Fishing, Providing Effective Regulations Therefor …” (and why shouldn’t they make it more difficult for traditional fisherfolk to catch fish?)

“An Act Providing For The Control And Elimination Of Human And Animal Rabies …” (before an epidemic breaks out I guess)

To be fair, the 13th Congress also came up with these:

“An Act Establishing A Standby Fund In The Sum Of Eight Hundred Fifty Million Pesos (P850,000,000.00) For The Clean Up Of The Guimaras Oil Spill, For The Relief Operations For The Victims Of The Eruption Of Mayon Volcano, And For The Emergency Repatriation Fund To Be Used For The Repatriation, Evacuation And Relief Of Overseas Filipino Workers And Other Filipino Nationals …”

” The Biofuels Act of 2006″

“An Act Prohibiting The Detention Of Patients In Hospitals And Medical Clinics On Grounds Of Nonpayment Of Hospital Bills Or Medical Expenses”

“An Act Amending Republic Act No. 7277, Otherwise Known As The ‘Magna Carta For Disabled Persons, …” (which should also be under the better late than never category)

Still, that’s the lowest number of enactments since 1987 (the post-Marcos era) and P84M(!) per law. It seems that “Law Cost” is not “Low Cost”. Obviously, we get what we deserve since these lawmakers needed our votes to get in Congress in the first place. We are part of the problem. We can’t expect our leaders to change unless we change ourselves (including how we review their performance).


Source: www.congress.gov.ph


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