Sunday, December 28, 2014

MILF: Passage of BBL urged ahead of election fever

Posted to the MILF Website (Dec 28): Passage of BBL urged ahead of election fever

 

Malacañang is urging Congress to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law and other priority measures before the election fever heats up in 2015, the penultimate year of the Aquino administration.
  
The Aquino government is seeking to institutionalize reforms in Mindanao by replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a Bangsamoro government.

“Hopefully we succeed in 2015 and the remainder of the President’s term,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said yesterday.

“This coming year, in the first quarter, the government will be quite busy. But, notwithstanding that, our priority of course is the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is already in Congress,” Valte said over radio dzRB.

Congress adjourned on Dec. 20 for the holidays and will resume session on Jan. 19.
Valte said lawmakers were busy with the 2015 national budget in the last quarter of the year.

She noted the passage of the budget has been getting faster each year since the Aquino administration took over.

“We are hoping that our priority pieces of legislation will be given ample attention,” Valte said, adding the executive branch would be busy with the visit of Pope Francis in January and the country’s hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit and other meetings also next year.

Valte said they were hoping there would be no delays in the passage of important bills even as candidates for the 2016 general elections would likely start preparing for their campaign.

“Of course, being a separate and co-equal branch of government, we will continue to work with them on the priority pieces of legislation that both sides would want to see coming to fruition for 2015,” Valte said.

She said the executive would not be distracted from their job.

“There are still quite a lot of things that need to be done,” Valte said.
Valte maintained President Aquino himself was focused on work and had only been giving hints as to what characteristics his preferred successor should have.

She said the President wants someone who can continue the reforms he has started and which have been fueling economic growth.

“Even to us, the President has not mentioned when he would announce his choice for the person that he would support in 2016,” Valte said.

Greater effort

What is certain, she said, is the administration’s commitment to work much harder in its last one and a half years.

As President Aquino noted in his Christmas message, Valte said the season “offers each one of us a chance to look back and reflect on the year that was” as well as “prepare for the coming year.”

“The Aquino administration has always engaged in this process of reflection and learning. Government can never be complacent: each reform, each program is consistently evaluated, as we continue to find ways to improve our service to the Filipino people,” Valte said.

Valte said the 2015 national budget embodied such principle as the document itself contained significant reforms.

“For instance, Performance Informed Budgeting makes clear the targets and accountabilities of each agency alongside their respective budgets. There is also the (General Appropriations Act)-as-Release-Document system, which allows government to speed up the implementation of programs and projects,” Valte said.
She also said the President’s visit to areas affected by Typhoon Ruby last Monday reflected the government’s commitment to learning and improving on past efforts.

“National government, affected local government units and the citizenry all exhibited the highest degree of cooperation and preparation before Ruby hit, minimizing the loss of life and damage to property,” she said.

“In all these efforts, as the President has always said, it is by working together that the Filipino people have been able to spur positive change in the country – change that will continue in the year ahead, so long as both the government and the citizenry continue to engage each other in a constructive and positive manner,” Valte said.

As for administration achievements in the last four and a half years, Valte cited the following as contained in an infographic prepared by the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office: average gross domestic product of six percent (from 4.6 percent in 2007 to second quarter of 2010); 7,125.63 closing value as of Dec. 19 at the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (from 3,372.71 closing value on June 29, 2010); investment grade from various credit rating agencies (from speculative grade in the past administration); $4.88-billion foreign direct investments in the first three quarters of 2014 (from $2.06 billion full year in 2009 and $1.07 billion full year in 2010); and tax revenues to GDP ratio of 13.3 percent in 2013 (from 12.2 percent and 12.1 percent in 2009 and 2010, respectively).

Others include: 4,478,562 households and homeless street families as conditional cash transfer beneficiaries as of November of this year from 786,534 households as of July 2010; 81.76 million covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. as of August 2014 from 47.07 million as of December 2010; employment rate of 94 percent as of October of this year from 92.9 percent as of October 2009; P383.1-billion budget for education in 2014 from P225.1 billion in 2010; 66,813 classrooms built from July 2010 to 2013 from 17,305 from 2005 to June 2010; and 4,681,307 tourist arrivals in 2013 from 3,017,099 in 2009.

Valte said the government is also in the thick of preparations for the visit of Pope Francis next month and the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in November 2015.

Security is the number one concern during the pope’s visit, Valte said, as the pontiff would have various activities that are expected to be crowd drawers, including those in the Rizal Park, Manila Cathedral, University of Santo Tomas and Tacloban City in Leyte. The pope, as head of state of the Vatican, will also have a meeting with President Aquino.

With regard to APEC, Valte said they were making sure that the venues will be well-prepared, as it is the biggest event in November.

“We are expecting 10,000 visitors for the APEC Leaders’ week in November...The other smaller events, the maximum is around 1,400; sometimes we will host 300 (or) 400 people...We are also preparing for those with equal fervor,” Valte said.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1428-passage-of-bbl-urged-ahead-of-election-fever

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