EP 39: Whatever happened to Duterte’s priority bills?

Ahead of President Duterte’s last state of the nation address on July 26, many aspects of his governance have come under even closer scrutiny.

A study by the Ateneo Policy Center recently focused on his administration’s legislative performance. in terms of bills passed by a congress he firmly dominates, the scorecard is “quantitatively impressive but qualitatively inadequate.”

Meaning — like his predecessors, Duterte has prioritized “short-term and rewarding laws over meaningful long-term reforms.”

These, of course, include political reforms such an an anti-political dynasty law or a freedom of information law, which remains stuck in the House of Representatives. 

To be fair, the same Ateneo study showed that Duterte “scored well on economic and some social sector legislation.”

Don’t forget, though, that this was the same lower house that denied ABS-CBN a new broadcast franchise last year taking away thousands of jobs in the middle of the pandemic.