House Speaker Martin Romualdez has reiterated the lower chamber's commitment toward the digital transformation being sought by the Marcos administration.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left, standing) and President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (2nd from right) meet with journalists at the APEC Summit (Speaker's office)
“We are well on our way in our commitment to support measures that would hasten the country's digital transformation to enable the government to provide faster and more efficient service to the public and ensure safe and secure digital commercial transactions,” Romualdez said in a recent statement.
He said the House Committee on Trade and Industry has already approved a consolidated version of the proposed Internet Transaction Act or E-Commerce Law, which is among the 20 priority measures President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. mentioned in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 25.
The bill proposes to create an E-Commerce Bureau to regulate internet commercial activities and protect consumers who engage in online transactions.
“We are also working equally hard for the passage of the proposed E-Government and E-Governance Act, which were also among the priority measures President Marcos enumerated in his SONA,” noted the Leyte 1st district congressman.
Last week, the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology held its technical working group (TWG) meeting to consolidate and fine-tune the provisions of the proposed E-Governance Act and E-Government Act.
Romualdez is the principal author of House Bill (HB) No.3, or the proposed E-Governance Act of 2022.
His co-authors of the measure are House Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, and Tingog Party-list Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre.
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In filing HB No. 3, Romualdez said government policies “must be responsive to the needs of our people, rather than burden them with totally avoidable restrictions.”
The passage of these measures, according to Romualdez, will also contribute to providing the necessary environment to help micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) not only to recover from the effects of the pandemic but also to grow and prosper.
In his intervention during the just-concluded Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, Marcos said narrowing the digital divide will “allow disadvantaged segments of our economies to participate in the digital economy and allow our economies to address future of work challenges through human resource development".
Romualdez, Marcos’s top ally in the Philippine legislature, accompanied Marcos to the high-level meeting.