MANILA, Philippines – The legislature is hoping to pass at least 15 priority measures of the administration before it adjourns indefinitely in June, a month before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.

The ball, however, is now in the Senate’s court, since all of the proposed legislations have already hurdled the House of Representatives.

These pending pet bills are:

1. Amendments to Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act
2. Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act
3. Philippine Maritime Zones Act
4. Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act
5. Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System
6. Negros Island Region Act
7. Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act
8. Value Added Tax on Digital Services
9. Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act
10. Blue Economy Act 
11. Waste-to-Energy Bill
12. Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP)
13. Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel 
14. E-Government Act/E-Governance Act 
15. Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act

A press release from the Presidential Communications Office said the original target of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) in January was to have 21 pet bills passed by June, but the list was reduced to 15 due to limited time.

Based on LEDAC’s tally, 14 out of 57 bills identified as pet bills by the administration have already been signed into law.

These are:

1. SIM Card Registration Act
2. Postponement of Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections
3. Tweaks to Duterte-era law on fixed terms for the top brass of the AFP
4. New Agrarian Emancipation Act
5. Maharlika Investment Fund
6. Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act
7. Public-Private Partnership Code of the Philippines
8. Regional Specialty Centers Act
9. Automatic Income Classification of Local Government Units Act
10. Internet Transactions Act
11. Ease of Paying Taxes Act
12. Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) Act
13. Philippine Salt Industry Development Act
14. New Philippine Passport Act

– Rappler.com