Both chambers of Congress have agreed to pass 14 priority measures before going on sine die adjournment on June 3, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas said on Tuesday.
Fariñas made the announcement following a meeting among House and Senate leaders, who identified the priority bills that both chambers will approve this month.
“These bills will be approved by both chambers until May 31. This is a joint agreement between the House and the Senate,” Fariñas said.
Among the 14 priority bills are the Free Internet Access in Public Places Act; Free Higher Education Act; Philippine Mental Health Act; amendments to the Philippine Passport Act; Revised Penal Code Indexation; Occupational Safety and Health Standards Act; a proposal for community service in lieu of imprisonment for the penalty of arresto menor; a proposal on the refusal of hospital and medical clinics to administer medical treatment in emergency cases;
The Free Irrigation Services Act; the Enhanced Universal Healthcare Act; the extension of Driver’s License Validity; the Agrarian and Agricultural Credit Condonation Act; the inclusion of Casinos in Anti-Money Laundering Act coverage; and a measure prohibiting the conversion of irrigated land.
Fariñas, however, said the comprehensive tax reform bill will not be passed by June “due to lack of material time.” This is contrary to the target of House Committee Ways and Means chairman Rep. Dakilo Cua of Quirino, who hoped to pass the bill in the lower chamber before the sine die adjournment.
The tax reform bill is still being fine-tuned by a technical working group headed by Cua. Under the bill, workers earning no more than P250,000 annually will be exempted from paying personal income taxes or PIT.
To compensate for the revenue losses from the lowering of PIT rates, some of the offsetting measures include increasing excise tax rates on all petroleum products and automobiles; expanding the value added tax base by limiting exemptions to raw food and other necessities; and taxing Philippine Charity Sweepstakes numbers’ game and lotto winnings.
Meanwhile, the Senate approved yesterday on third and final reading Senate Bill No. 1354 or the Mental Health Act of 2017, which seeks to integrate mental health services into the national health system to make it more accessible, affordable and equitable.
The bill, authored by Senate Majority Floor Leader Tito Sotto and Senators Risa Hontiveros, Sonny Angara, Sonny Trillanes, Bam Aquino, Loren Legarda and Joel Villanueva, was approved with 19 affirmative votes, zero negative votes and no abstentions.
“This is a historic day for all of us. After being one of the few countries left without a mental health policy, we are now closer to realizing a national mental health law to comprehensively address the Filipinos’ mental health needs and ensure that our rights as persons with mental health concerns are protected and secured,” said Hontiveros, sponsor of the bill.
The Philippines is one of the very few countries that did not have a mental health law, added Sotto, a co-sponsor of the measure.
While mental health was a critical public health issue, Hontiveros said, inadequate attention had been given to it. She said data and information on mental health were outdated, and the capacity of the country’s health care delivery system to respond to patients with mental health conditions was severely lacking.
For instance, she said, the ratio of mental health worker per population in the Philippines was only two per 100,000 population. In comparison, Malaysia has 4.9 mental health workers per 100,000 population while Indonesia has 3.1 per 100,000 population.
Sotto said two to three million Filipinos suffered from mental health problems, but a big part of them were not being reported due to the stigma attached to their condition.
Another 2011 study by the World Health Organization showed that the Philippines had the highest incidence of depression in Southeast Asia. Senator Sonny Angara, who also co-sponsored SBN 1354, said a 2004 Department of Health-Social Weather Station survey showed that almost one of every 100 households had a family member with a mental disorder.
According to Angara, a 2006 DOH study of the prevalence of mental health problems in the National Capital Region revealed that across 20 government agencies in Metro Manila, one in three employees, or 32 percent of 327 respondents, had experienced a mental health problem or breakdown at least once in their lifetime. These include specific phobias, alcohol abuse and depression.
“Our institutions are ill-equipped to keep track and treat the mental health of our countrymen and because of this inability, many cases possibly go undiagnosed,” Angara said.
“We are closer to integrating mental health services into the national health system to make it more accessible, affordable and equitable. And we will be needing the help of our friends from the House of Representatives to be able to do it.”
He called on their House counterparts to prioritize the passage of a similar measure in their chamber.
Hontiveros cited a WHO study which showed that a person committed suicide every 40 seconds. In the Philippines, she said, the 2010 national census estimated that of the 1.4 million Filipinos with disabilities, 14 percent or over 200,000 persons were found to have mental disabilities or disorders.
“We hear stories of people spiralling into destructive depression because of the lack of social support and the delay in accessing treatment for fear of being ostracized,” Hontiveros added.
Hontiveros said the bill proposed an appropriation of five percent of the incremental revenues from the excise tax on tobacco and alcohol products to secure the necessary resources for the implementation of the measure.
The bill proposes the integration of mental health services into the primary health care system at the community level and mandates mental health services to be made available at this level as well as the strengthening of the capacity of tertiary regional and provincial hospitals in providing psychiatric, psycho-social and neurologic services.
The bill also seeks the integration of mental health promotion in educational institutions as well as the workplace to address the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health.
It provides for the capacity building, reorientation, and training of mental health professionals and health workers and provides punishment of imprisonment of less than six months to two years a fine of P10,000 to P200,000 for the violation of the proposed measure. With Macon Ramos-Araneta