Fitial on personal leave; ETC bill action rests with Inos

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has been “on personal leave” since Sunday night, leaving it up to acting governor Eloy S. Inos to decide on the controversial bill suspending the educational tax credit program during periods of government austerity.

Today is the last day for the governor or the acting governor to act on Senate Bill 17-68. Without any action, the bill automatically becomes law.

Inos and press secretary Angel Demapan confirmed that Fitial left for the Philippines on Sunday night and will be back either Wednesday or Thursday.

The governor is reportedly visiting the family of first lady Josie Fitial and a close friend who is on medical emergency.

Inos, in an interview yesterday, could not say whether he will veto or approve the bill but said regardless of his final decision, the ETC program needs to be “reformed.”

“The suspension is essentially a stopgap measure in my view,” he added.

On the eve of the last day for action on the bill, Inos met separately with members of the House and Senate yesterday afternoon to see whether the Legislature would agree to his proposed reform of the ETC program so that there won’t be a need to take “drastic” measures like suspending the program.

“That’s why I need to confer with them and see if they’d agree to the reform we’d like to see. I’m pretty sure they’re all for improving the program. …Our action on the bill would heavily depend on what is it that we want to do moving forward,” he said.

He said if he’s going to veto the bill, he will more than likely have a lot of recommendations.

But a lawmaker said the problem with recommendations is that “nobody follows it up.”

The acting governor said the administration has reviewed the bill, saw the effects and consequences—either intended or not—of suspending it, as well as effects of not reforming it.

“If they [lawmakers] agree and I hope they will agree, then we’ll move in that direction and then in that case we don’t have to do anything drastic like suspension,” Inos said.

Rep. Ray Palacios (Cov-Saipan), chairman of the House Education Committee and who was present during the House leadership’s meeting with Inos, said it’s “most likely” that Inos will veto the bill and will instead work on reforming the ETC program or go with another new bill that seeks to equally distribute ETC funds among all public and private schools, depending on their student population.

“We would like to see what the acting governor has decided on by Tuesday,” Palacios said.

After meeting with the House leadership, Inos met with some senators late yesterday afternoon.

The Public School System and private schools are opposed to the suspension of the ETC program but are open to improving the program and in making sure that money is accounted for.