Messaging, messaging...

VISUM WILFREDO G. REYES

- WILFREDO G. REYES

Congress to cut the gap of days required between secondand third-reading approval, and approve measures concerned successively in second and third reading within a day. (Much in the same way that we ask why the ICI was left without sufficient funding and powers if it was expected to do its job properly).

Did that LEDAC meeting decide that it would be prudent for the President not to certify urgency — and so avoid the risk of humiliation — since neither Congressional leader could assure support for approval of these contentious reforms (considering, among others, that an estimated 80% of House district seats are occupied by members of political dynasties)?

But at least these are some of the bills needed to make sure that anti-corruption efforts are sustained beyond merely jailing those most guilty (and not just small fry like Public Works officials and contractors).

It remains to be seen if Congress will act on them at all (on occasion, lawmakers have turned a deaf ear to the President when they perceived their vested interests threatened), or else will dilute these reforms to the point of making the resulting laws inutile — just recall what happened to Republic Act No. 7941, which established the otherwise well-intentioned party-list representation system 30 years ago.

Noticeably missing from LEDAC’s list, of course, is that long-desired measure to lift the secrecy on bank accounts, needed to make it easier to track illicit money flows (a proposal more than two-decades-old now, but towards which most lawmakers since at least 2004 have been allergic), as well as an encompassing freedom of information law.