Over 1,400 Senate bills filed 2 weeks before opening of session

A record high of 1,400 bills have already been filed in the Senate two weeks before session begins, records from the Legislative Bills and Index Service Department (LBIS) showed. During the 14th Congress, 3,596 bills were filed during its three regular sessions. Only 71 of these bills were enacted into laws. This early, LBIS director Antoinette Pelaez-Aristoza said a total of 1,416 bills have already been filed by the senators of the 15th Congress, with about 1,400 more pending verification. Bills need to be verified before they can be filed. Verification means checking whether the bills submitted to the LBIS haven't already been passed into law in the past. "We're verifying it against existing laws... if there is an existing law like it. If there is, we return it," said Aristoza, adding that they cannot yet show the verified bills because they haven't been read on the Senate floor yet. So far, no senator has submitted a bill that has been enacted into law, she said. Jinggoy filed most bills Aristoza said that for the 15th Congress, the senator who has so far filed the most bills is Senate Pro Tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada with 517. Next to him are Senator Antonio Trillanes IV with 300 and Senator Manuel Villar Jr., a defeated presidential bet, with 298. The first to file a bill was Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who filed three bills last July 1, a day after the inauguration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III. On the other hand, the senators who have not filed any bills are Senators Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., Joker Arroyo, and Panfilo Lacson, who is in hiding and subject of an arrest warrant in connection with the Dacer-Corbito case. Aristoza said some of the senators are probably able to pass so many bills because they neglect to verify whether their proposals have already been enacted into law. "They might be so engrossed in writing the bill. They became so excited with drafting the bill (that) they forgot that there is already an existing law," she said. She likewise said that some senators either just have so many ideas in mind or that they just want to be the main author of the bill, in case someone else had thought of the same proposal. She, however, said the number of bills filed by a senator does not measure their performance as a lawmaker. "It's not really a matter of how many bills they've filed, what matters is that the committee hears your bill. (Also) you do not stop at filing the bill," she said. Final say in referrals Aristoza said that after verifying the bills, they refer it to the Senate committees for sorting. But she said that the Office of the Majority Floor Leader has the final say in the referrals. The committees are then expected to hear the bill. If the bill is passed up to the third reading, it is referred to the House of Representatives for concurrence. If the House approves the bill, the reconciled version of the bill is submitted to Malacañang for signing by the President. "It's a long debate, depending on how controversial the bill is. It's a long process, to legislate," she said. — RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV