Stages of Environmental Lobbying

STAGES OF ENVIRONMENTAL LOBBYING

by Antonio C. Antonio

November 25, 2014

“An advocacy is a structured process to gain public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or public policy.” (Antonio, 2014)  “Environmental lobbying is defined as the process of putting pressure on members of the legislature or seeking to influence a politician or public official to pass bills on an environmental issue or established public policies on the environment.  The normal targets of environmental lobbying are the elected senators and congressional district representatives since our legislative branch is bicameral in structure.  Environmental lobbying with the legislative branch is effective on non-existent public policies of measure that are still to be passed as bills and enacted into laws or republic acts.   However, lobbying could also be done with the executive department particularly the department secretaries especially on laws that still lack the implementing rules and regulations or are presently being implemented.” (Antonio, 2014)

The Philippines is a democracy no matter how some might view it as a dysfunctional one.  Being a functioning democracy means we are ruled by laws and public policies.  It is therefore in the crafting of bills and laws that legalizes and institutionalizes public concerns… including the environment.  Towards this end, lobbying becomes important.  But how do we lobby?... and where?  Here is to answer the “wheres” and the “hows”.

The Lobbying could actually be done in every legislative stage.  It is important to note that lobbying is easier in stages where membership and participation is less.  Plenary lobbying is harder on account of the sheer number of senators and congressional representatives involved.

STAGE 1 – Congress: (Senate and House of Representatives) This is where proposed Senate and House Bills are submitted to the Senator or Congressman in charge of the appropriate Congressional Committee for sponsorship.  After the proponent Senator or Congressman submits the proposed bill to the Plenary, the proposed bill is normally assigned to the Congressional Committee for further study.

STAGE 2 – Congressional Committees: (Senate and House of Representatives) The Senator and Congressman call for a series of meetings or congressional investigation, in aide of legislation, to engage the services of resource persons and get the opinions of SMEs (subject matter experts) on the proposed bill.  Several meetings are called for this purpose so that the proposed bill can be polished as to its responsiveness to public need.

STAGE 3 – Plenary: (Senate and House of Representatives) There are normally three readings that a bill has to go through at the plenary level.  The appropriate Congressional Committee or the sponsoring Senator or Congressman takes charge of presenting the proposed bill to the plenary.  The bill is finally approved (normally on third reading) or sent back to the Congressional Committee for further study.

STAGE 4 – Bicameral Conference Committee: (Senate and House of Representatives) In most instances, related bills approved by both Houses of Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) differ in substance.  To harmonize these different bills, they are assigned to the Bicameral Conference Committee which is composed of Senators and Congressmen for further deliberation.  The objective of the Bicameral Conference Committee is to come up with a single-unified-harmonized bill.  The harmonized bill is then transmitted by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the President of the Philippines for his final approval and signing into law.

STAGE 5 – The Executive Branch: (The President).  The President could either approve the bill and signs it into law or vetoes the same.  A Presidential veto means the bill does not progress to become a law.  On the other hand, signed bills are assigned to the concerned Department where the IRR or Implementing Rules and Regulations are crafted.

STAGE 6 – The Executive Branch: (The Department Secretaries) After the concerned Cabinet Secretary receives the approved and signed law, it now becomes the concerned department’s responsibility to craft the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).

Laws passing through these six stages take months (some even years) before they become part of the laws of the land.  Advocates and lobbyists can take advantage of any of these stages to include their concerns to the proposed bill and/or law.  For environmental issues and concerns, we could call these the stages of environmental lobbying.

Just my little thoughts…

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