Bill mandating gov’t, private sector cooperation filed in Senate

File picture of  Senator Sonny Angara (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — A measure mandating the collaboration of government agencies and the private sector to boost the country’s economic development and prosperity has been filed in the Senate.

Sen. Sonny Angara filed Senate Bill No. 2218 on May 22, which requires “the formulation, financing, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of a comprehensive Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) strategy.”

The measure, dubbed the Tatak Pinoy Act, would mandate government agencies to work with private sectors to diversify local enterprises.

In the bill, Angara explained, “the new administration and the post-pandemic recovery of the Philippines present a singular opportunity to transform the Philippine economy the way regional neighbors like Malaysia or South Korea did decades ago, and China more recently. Nothing less than a whole-of-nation approach is needed to make this happen.”

He further noted this objective would help generate high-paying jobs, employment opportunities, a wider geographical spread of economic prosperity, and accessibility of public services to all stakeholders.

Angara also said the “whole-of-nation approach” would help the country hit a growth rate goal of 6.5 to 8 percent from 2024 to 2028, as contained in the Philippine Development Plan, and sustain this in the succeeding years.

“We dubbed this advocacy Tatak Pinoy or Proudly Filipino because we believe that the results it seeks to achieve—namely world-beating Filipino enterprises selling globally competitive products and services to the rest of the world—are things that the country as a whole can and should be proud of,” Angara, who is also the Senate Committee on Finance chairman,  said in a statement issued Thursday.

Under the measure, a strategy will also be created, financed, and monitored by a council, which the Socioeconomic Planning secretary will head as chair and the Trade and Industry and Finance secretaries as vice-chairs.

The strategy will be formed through “manpower, infrastructure, technology and innovation, investments, and public financial management and government procurement.”

The finance committee is set to hold its first public hearing on the bill this May 30.

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