Landmark Legislation Estimated to Take Seven Years to Implement

Senate Passes Bill Requiring All Bills to Pass Faster

Landmark Legislation Estimated to Take Seven Years to Implement

In a historic session that lasted eleven hours and included two merienda breaks, the Philippine Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 4471, officially titled the “Expedited Legislative Processes and Accelerated Congressional Efficiency Enhancement Act of the Republic of the Philippines (ELAACEEARP).” The bill, which requires all future legislation to be processed more quickly, was itself introduced in 2017. “Today marks a new chapter,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Rodrigo Malabanan-Flores, visibly emotional. “We have shown the Filipino people that this Senate moves with urgency and purpose.” The bill mandates that all legislation must now be acted upon within five years of filing, down from the current informal standard of “whenever.” It also establishes the Congressional Urgency Subcommittee on Urgency, which must itself be formed within three years and will meet quarterly to discuss the importance of meeting quarterly. Critics noted that the ELAACEEARP contains twenty-seven amendments, six of which contradict each other, and an entire subsection written in Comic Sans that nobody can explain. The Office of the Senate Secretary confirmed this was “not intentional but also not not intentional.” Implementation has been assigned to a new agency, the Department of Legislative Velocity, which requires its own charter bill, expected to be acted upon by 2029. The House of Representatives formed a technical working group to study the Senate version before crafting their own, a process they describe as “bicameral synergy” and observers describe as “the usual.” Citizens following the bill on the Senate website found the tracker had not been updated since March 2023 and displayed the message “Coming Soon!”

SOURCE: Bohiney News.