Thirty bills have been enacted into laws in the first two years of this 10th government, according to recent announcement by President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr.
The law RPPL 10-30, The Responsible Tourism Education Act of 2018 is the 30th RPPL to be enacted yesterday when President Remengesau Jr. signed it into law before the gathering of the national leadership.
“At this rate, we will hit 60 laws before the end of this term,” expressed Remengesau.
The thirty laws include some legislations that have had significant impact on Palau. One such law is RPPL 10-5 which reinstated land court to its full operations and removed deadline for land surveying and monumentation work. Determination of land ownership were held up for almost a without an operating land court.
RPPL 10-8 amended Social Security Administration Act by increasing Social Security contributions by 2%, 1% from employee and 1% from employer and removed the renumeration ceiling. This law raised a lot of resistance as employers and employees were forced to give up 1% of the salary as additional Social Security contributions.
The law RPPL 10-11 authorizing President of the Republic to enter into the Airport Renovation Contracts created also major controversy and lawsuits from some of the Senators against the government for what was deems as lack of transparency by the government on the project process. Court ruled in favor of the government on the case.
RPPL 10-13 mandated school wellness and nutrition standards for all school and RPPL 10-13 prohibit import and distribution of certain plastics.
Other laws include RPPL 10-19 which exempted States from certain requirements and added restrictions on tariffs by PPUC and RPPL 10-20 which defined position to encourage high-end hotel accommodations.
RPPL 10-22 Established a child care center act to regulate child care centers.
Another major law RPPL 10-23 gave Palau Energy Administration regulatory authority over power production. This particular law is fueling the current controversy over the Power Purchase Agreement recently entered into by PPUC and a private corporation Engie EPS.
RPPL 10-27 established institutional review board to regulate medical or scientific research conducted in Palau and 10-28 created a national framework for access, fair and equitable sharing of benefits of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with generic resources with the Republic of Palau.
The recently signed RPPL 10-30, seeks to enforce by law the Palau Pledge project as means to educate visitors on the environment of Palau. The law will also mandate commercial transports such as planes and ships to provide education on Palau environment via videos or other means en route to Palau. It mandates private businesses to also educate its customers of the same.
During the 9th government, 65 bills were passed into law. At this rate, 10th OEK may be able to surpass 9th OEK in the number of laws passed. (L.N. Reklai)