Outgoing Trade and Industry Ramon M. Lopez has urged the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to prefer locally manufactured products instead of procuring government supplies via the lowest bidder rule.

Lopez emphasized this recommendation at the Manufacturing Summit 2022 as a necessary government policy to inject to help local manufacturing in the post pandemic.

“This will create demand for local manufactured products which will create jobs in return,” he said.

Lopez explained that the basic principle in government procurement of supplies is outlined under RA 1984, which is just based on lowest cost.

He said the next administration could do some refinement to the lowest bidder rule.

He, however, said that the preferential treatment policy for locally manufactured products may not necessarily apply to all government procurements, but there should be certain products where only local producers can participate in the bidding. For these products, Lopez said, prices can be benchmarked from prices abroad to ensure competitive pricing.

“There can be this kind of approach -- special government procurement program -- where only local can participate in the bid,” he said. As bids are won by local producers, he said, there will be more jobs that can be created.

For instance, he said, once the Philippines has attained a production capacity for personal protective equipment (PPE), future requirements can hopefully be sourced from the local PPE producers only.

Other select government procurement where bidding can only be participated in by local producers include uniforms for military, boots and gear

To further boost local manufacturing, Lopez has urged the next administration to strongly consider some recommendations.

These are: align future Strategic Investment Priority Plan of CREATE with i3S and make CREATE a driver for Philippine industrialization and recovery; allocate government budget to accelerate digital transformation towards an inclusive and sustainable industrial development; implement human resource development and industry skills framework to prepare the workforce for the jobs of the future; support the development and scaling up of innovative startups and MSMEs and Build RIICs all over the country; and leveraging on the recent FDI liberalization, expand and diversify trade and investment sources and upgrade industries' global value chain participation.