Palace includes Security of Tenure as among priority bills

August 6, 2019

After President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the Security of Tenure ( SOT) bill, it would be one of the priority measures of the administration under the current Congress, an official said on Monday.

Presidential Legislative Liaison Office chief Adelino Sitoy told reporters in a phone patch interview that during the pre-Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council meeting on Monday, the participants discussed the priority bills and how to avoid what happened in the previous Congress where some of the enrolled bills, including the SOT, ended up being vetoed by Duterte.

"We have ironed out the details in order to avoid veto," he said.

He said the priority bills would be those which were not enacted into law before.

"Same priorities, the remaining priorities in the past. Then we will refile the 'endo' and the coco levy. The remaining priorities that have not become laws would be refiled," Sitoy said.

Endo bill was the SOT bill, which Duterte recently vetoed to the disappointment of some lawmakers as well as labor groups.

Duterte vetoed it, saying he had to maintain the "healthy balance" between the conflicting interests of labor and management.

1 Other priority measùres would be the national land use act and the revival of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Also present in the pre-Ledac meeting in Malacañang were Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and other members of the executive and legislative branches of government.

The shift to federal form of government was not discussed, Sitoy said. Celerina Monte/DMS