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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights
was the most productive among all 35 standing committees of the
Upper Chamber in the recently concluded First Regular Session of the
Fourteenth Congress.
The committee, headed by Sen. Francis Escudero,
came out with 24 reports, or almost one-third of the 78 produced by
the First Regular Session.
The Senate Committee on Ways and Means, also
headed by Escudero, is the second-most productive committee with
nine reports.
And the Senate Committee on Banks and Financial
Intermediaries, headed by Sen. Edgardo Angara, came out with the
most number of committee reports on priority legislation with five.
A committee report is a consolidation of related
bills submitted to the rules committee after public hearings or
consultations. It is given another bill number, and it is the one
sponsored and debated in plenary, not the individual bills filed on
first reading.
For instance, Committee Report No. 24, which
eventually became the law on the UP Charter, consolidated eight
bills filed by several senators. The 78 committee reports actually
involve 249 bills. This output is more than twice that of the First
Regular Session of the Thirteenth Congress, which produced only 30
reports.
Committee Report No. 1 submitted by the justice
committee is also the first bill passed on third and final reading
by the Fourteenth Congress. It seeks to grant the rest of the
judiciary similar additional retirement benefits presently enjoyed
by retiring justices of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.
It is still pending at the House.
The only priority bill reported out by the
justice committee is the compensation of human rights victims during
martial law. In the Thirteenth Congress, the House approved a
similar bill but the Senate acted late. Consequently, the bill did
not become a law. In the Fourteenth Congress, the Senate acted ahead
of the House, where the bill is still pending.
Among the more noteworthy bills approved by the
justice committee are the Free Legal Assistance Act, amendment of
the law on prostitution, decriminalization of vagrancy and the Good
Conduct Time Allowance for Prisoners.
Of the nine committee reports submitted by the
Senate Committee on Ways and Means, the more noteworthy are the
exemption of movies from entertainment tax, and the measure
exempting minimum-wage earners from paying income tax and increasing
personal and individual exemptions. The first one is pending before
the House, while the latter is now a law.
All the five committee reports of the Senate
Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries headed by Angara had
been identified by the Joint Legislative-Executive Development
Advisory Council as priority measures. These are the Pre-Need Code,
the Personal Equity Retirement Account, the Credit Information
System, the Cooperative Code (jointly with the Committee on
Cooperatives headed by Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri and the Committee on
Revision of Codes and Laws headed by Sen. Richard Gordon.), and the
Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Industries, jointly with the
Committee on Trade headed by Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd and the
Committee on Economic Affairs of Sen. Loren Legarda.
Angara, as chairman of the Senate Committee on
Agriculture, had also reported out the bill extending the life of
the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which is now a
law.
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