MANILA: The Senate has started working on a bill prohibiting political dynasties even as several groups have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to compel Congress to pass such a law.
Because there is little time left for the 15th Congress to pass the bill, however, both Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, who chairs the committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation, admitted yesterday that the measure may have to wait until the next Congress.
Sotto said public hearings and plenary debates on the proposed bill could provide a good starting point for future deliberations on the measure.
One public hearing has been conducted so far on Senate Bill 2649 filed by Sen Miriam Defensor-Santiago that seeks to ban political dynasties. Sotto said there are too many pending pieces of legislation in the Senate and it would be difficult to include the bill as a priority measure.
However, he said that the conduct of hearings and perhaps debates on the bill could serve as a starting point for future discussions.
Pimentel said he would conduct one or two more hearings solely for the measure. “I expect that after those hearings, we can come out with a good definition, and then all the disqualifications will follow from this good definition of what constitutes political dynasties,” Pimentel said.
However, he said that getting this approved before Congress adjourns in June 2013 might not be possible. “Not in 2013 but I just want to contribute to lawmaking, in the sense that I can come up with a better version of the bill and if this is re-filed in the next Congress then it will be an improved version of the current one,” Pimentel said.
The Senate is expected to focus attention on the proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013 when it resumes session on November 5 in order to have it enacted into law before yearend.
Aside from the budget bill, the Senate also has a number of priority measures pending approval, such as the sin tax bill, the amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the controversial Reproductive Health bill.
With elections coming up in May next year, most of the senators would also be busy campaigning, leaving little time for legislative work.
Sen Sergio Osmeña III said the other day that he does not see any problem with the bill hurdling the Senate but as far as the House of Representatives is concerned, that would be a problem.
Osmeña recalled that during the 10th Congress in 1995, a similar bill was debated in the Senate but was archived because it did not have the support of the House of Representatives.
He said that the bill went to the archive after former senator Orlando Mercado was told by his counterpart in the House of Representatives that he should not even bother sending the bill over to them because there was no way they were going to approve it.
Another reason the Senate gave up deliberating on the measure then was the legal question raised over the inclusion of common-law wives and mistresses in the coverage of the proposed law.
The Philippine star
