Duterte yet to sign 182 bills approved in 18th Congress

With less than two weeks before his term ends, President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to sign into law 182 bills that were approved during the 18th Congress, Senate President Vicente Sotto III reported Tuesday.

"Considering that the 18th Congress we had almost two years of pandemic response and pandemic lockdowns, there were 197 [bills] signed into law, there was one veto but right now, pending in the Office of the President are 182 bills passed by both houses of Congress," Sotto said in an interview with reporters.

The 182 bills include the proposal to create a separate facility for heinous criminals; the creation of the National Transportation Board; Special Protection Against Online Abuse; Vaporized Nicotine Products; Expanded Anti-Trafficking Act; Permanent Validity of Birth, Death, and Marriage Certificates; Increase of Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens Act, among others.

The Vaporized Nicotine Products Bill was already approved by both houses of Congress but it has yet to be transmitted to Malacañang.

The bill provides regulations on the importation, manufacture, sale, packaging, distribution, use, and communication of vape products and novel tobacco products.

The measure includes the registration of the vape products with the Department of Trade and Industry.

However, the Department of Health asked Duterte to veto the measure as it contains "retrogressive provisions,” adding that it undermines existing national laws, policies, and standards on regulation, distribution, and use of vapor products and heated tobacco products.

Sotto appealed to Duterte to prioritize the signing of the bill which creates separate facilities for heinous crimes inmates.

"There are very urgent matters there. For example, number is the Separate Facility for Heinous Crimes Inmates Act. If ever it was not signed into law I hope it will lapse into law or the next president might act on it," Sotto said.

Meanwhile, among the 197 bills approved by Duterte are the measures on the modernization of the Bureau of Fire Protection, taxation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations, increasing penalty of perjury, Retail Trade Liberalization amendments, creation of the Department of Migrant Workers, Foreign Investment Act amendments, increasing the age of statutory rape, Marawi Compensation, and public health emergency benefits and allowances for healthcare workers, among others.

According to Sotto, the 197 bills passed during the 18th Congress and were subsequently approved by Duterte do not include local bills which were signed into law.

The lone vetoed measure was the SIM Card Registration Act, which sought to deter crimes by mandating all public telecommunications entities to require the registration of SIM cards as a prerequisite to their sale and activation.

The bill proposes all social media networks to also require the real name and phone number of users upon creation of account.

Duterte rejected the proposed law due to the provision on social media registration.

During the 18th Congress, the Senate concurred in the ratification of three treaties namely the Accession to the Convention on Temporary Admission, Accession to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and the Arms Trade Treaty.

Since they did not concur with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Sotto said he hopes the 19th Congress will approve this, especially now that the President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos will lead the Department of Agriculture.

"If the proper safeguards will be done by the executive department, then it's okay. I think we should accept, agree," he said.

"'Yun din ang aming original na pangamba doon sa [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization] na sabi namin kung hindi nakahanda, 'wag. Lima kami out of 24 that voted no and apparently, after so many years, we were right. So, dito sa RCEP 'yon din ang warning na sinasabi natin. Paghandaan natin ito now with the incoming president as secretary of Agriculture, we might be ready for RCEP in that case. So maganda, magandang possibility na mapasa ang RCEP in the next Congress," he added.

There were 45 simple resolutions and 11 concurrent resolutions approved by the Upper Chamber in the 18th Congress.—AOL, GMA News