The 15th Congress ended its session for the year approving five priority bills since it opened last July, with business groups still looking forward to the passage of a key reform measure.

Approved by the Senate and House of Representatives were the bills:

• penalizing unauthorized taking, stealing, keeping or tampering of state-owned disaster risk reduction equipment;

• providing household helpers additional benefits or the "Kasambahay bill";

• providing funds that will modernize the equipment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines;

• restructuring excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products or the "sin" tax bill; and

• providing for a national policy on reproductive health and responsible parenthood.

The so-called sin tax reform measure was signed into law yesterday and denominated as Republic Act (RA) No. 10351, while the Kasambahay bill and the Reproductive Health and Responsible Parenthood Bill are awaiting the signature of President Benigno S. C. Aquino III.

RA 10349 or the revised AFP modernization program, and RA 10344 or the measure penalizing unauthorized taking, stealing, keeping or tampering of government risk reduction equipment were signed into law on Dec. 11 and Dec. 4, respectively.

Lawmakers, on the other hand, failed to pass some priority measures, including rationalizing fiscal incentives and penalizing anti-competitive deals.

House Bill No. 4935 or the measure rationalizing fiscal incentives was approved on Aug. 18 last year and has been transmitted to the Senate. The measure is pending at the ways and means committee.

The anti-trust act or competition policy, which aims to prohibit cartels and monopolies, is pending second reading approval in both chambers.

Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" R. Belmonte, Jr. (4th district, Quezon City), in a press conference on Tuesday, said he is of the opinion that "it [anti-trust] will still be passed in the 15th Congress" while the fiscal incentives measure will better be tackled in the next Congress.

Sough for comment, Henry J. Schumacher, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines external affairs vice-president, said in a text message on Tuesday: "We are still hopeful that this legislation will move as clarity regarding fiscal incentives is important to attract strategic investments."

For his part, John D. Forbes, legislative committee head of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc., hopes the measure will be approved in the next Congress.

"Business groups have participated in this overdue policy reform effort for a decade. We hope it will be accomplished in the 16th Congress," he said via text.

"We remain hopeful that when Congress resumes session beginning Jan. 21, it will continue to approve these business and economic reform measures to further enhance Philippine competitiveness," he said in a separate e-mail.

Congress adjourns tomorrow and will resume session on Jan. 21. It will only hold session until Feb. 8 to give way for the midterm elections. The third regular session then resumes on June 3-6.

The American chamber’s director of operations, Robert M. Sears, expressed the same sentiment via text: "They have done a good job. And we expect a continuation of legislative reforms next year."

In a separate interview, Makati Business Club Executive Director Peter Angelo V. Perfecto also expects the fiscal incentives bill to be passed next year, while welcoming the Congress’ efforts to hurdle other priority measures.

"Of course we’re very happy that they passed the sin tax and the RH bill," he said in a phone interview yesterday.

"We look forward to the Senate and House to prioritizing the other bills such as fiscal incentives and anti-competitive agreements (anti-trust) in the next Congress."

Meanwhile, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Miguel B. Varela noted the urgency of having a fiscal incentives measure.

"I think they should give some priority to this because we are trying to compete with foreign investors. Maybe when they resume in January after the Christmas break, they should calendar this," he said in a separate phone call.

Source: Business World; The Nation; 21 December 2012