Business groups urge lawmakers to act on pending bills before election fever starts
Posted on September 15th, 2009
As the 2010 elections draw nearer, the business community is becoming wary because of some bills that are still pending both on the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Believing that lawmakers attention would be shifted once the campaign season starts, sixteen local and foreign business groups wrote a letter to House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, urging the Congress to prioritize measures that are ready for bicameral talks, those that need its counterpart at either chamber to be passed, and those that have been endorsed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“With the interest of many legislators shifting towards the 2010 campaign, we the undersigned representatives of Philippine business groups and foreign chambers of commerce communicate our support for the final passage of [certain] bills,” the groups stated.
Makati Business Club Executive Director Alberto A. Lim and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Edgardo G. Lacson, are one in saying that actions must be taken – and fast, because once the lawmakers are already in the thick of preparing for the elections, it may become hard to form a quorum.
The Pre-Need Code and the Real Estate Investment Trust Bill are just two of those that the group would like to see enacted early, because both are ready for consideration by the bicameral committee.
Some of those that the group listed are following bills which were already passed by the House and request Senate to act upon on:
•   amendments to the Customs Broker Act;
•   Department of Information and Communication bill;
•   Freedom of Access to Information bill;
•   rationalization of fiscal perks; and
•   the Simplified Net Income Tax Scheme (SNITS).
Those who signed the letters to the lawmakers were leaders of the: Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines. Chiefs of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Bankers Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Phils., Inc. also signed, along with representatives from the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese, and Korean business chambers, and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc.
