MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. during his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday renewed his call for Congress to pass his priority legislation as the country continues its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among these, Marcos said, are the important tax programs under the government's Medium-Term Fiscal Framework that include the excise tax on single-use plastics, VAT on digital services, and the rationalization of mining fiscal regime.

He also mentioned the motor vehicle user’s charge/road user’s tax and the Military and Uniformed Personnel Pension.

Marcos described the pension of the military and the uniformed personnel as "important and urgent."

• Marcos to push for uniformed personnel pension reform, says Diokno

The government, he said, is making sure the new pension would be functional and "financially sustainable." Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the reform pension aims to prevent a possible "fiscal collapse."

"We are once again working closely with Congress to ease the transition from the old system to the new one, so as to be able to guarantee that no effects are felt by those in the uniformed services," Marcos said.

The other 11 measures the President wants Congress to support are the following:

• Amendment of the Fisheries Code
• Amendment of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act
• Amendment of the Cooperative Code
• New Government Procurement Law
• New Government Auditing Code
• Anti-financial accounts scamming
• Tatak-Pinoy law
• The Blue Economy law
• Ease of paying taxes
• LGU income classification
• The Philippine Immigration Act

Amendments to the Cooperative and Fisheries codes, he said, were seen to strengthen local agriculture production.

Enacting a new Government Procurement Law and a new Government Auditing Code, Marcos said, will "make government procurement and auditing more attuned to these changing times."

This is also in preparation for the devolution plans of local government units, he noted.

"We will give effect to the mandate of the Constitution and the Local Government Code, as clarified by the Supreme Court very soon," he said.

"To fully prepare them for optimal devolution, the necessary technical and financial assistance is being extended to our local governments," he added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive expressed confidence in the country's future citing the Filipinos' world-class quality in the workforce aspect.

"That confidence has been further buoyed by the demonstration of love for the Philippines. Every Filipino has unanimously risen to the challenge that we have made to them to be part of our nation’s future," he said.

"And thus, with this in my heart, I know that the state of the nation is sound, and is improving. Dumating na po ang Bagong Pilipinas."

Days before his second SONA, Marcos approved measures such as the Maharlika Investment Fund and the New Agrarian Emancipation that wrote off agrarian reform beneficiaries’ debt worth around P57.557 billion.

A total of 20 bills were passed during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) in late July, anchored on economic growth, jobs creation, and health care.

• Marcos to sign Maharlika Fund before SONA, LEDAC identifies priority bills

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