BETTER DAYS
There is growing excitement about the implementation of Republic Act 11981 or the Tatak Pinoy (TP) Act — the law that will pave the way for stronger collaboration between the government and the private sector towards the development of Philippine industries, sustainable economic growth, and greater opportunities for our people in their own country. Under the law, the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) must be issued within 60 days from the effectivity of the law. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the law on Feb. 26, 2024 so the Department of Trade and Industry and the TP Council should have the IRR ready by April 26, 2024. As a background, the TP Council is the policy and advisory body to the President and is composed of the Secretary of Trade and Industry as its chairperson; the Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Secretary of Finance as its vice chairpersons; and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Budget and Management, Information and Communications Technology, Interior and Local Government, Labor and Employment, and Science and Technology; and four private sector representatives as its members.
Even before the issuance of the IRR, the agencies that are part of the TP Council are already mandated to start its call for private sector representatives while the DTI-Competitiveness and Innovation Group should be working on constituting an interim secretariat for the TP Council. One of the initial tasks of the TP Council is the issuance of a list of Philippine products and services that will be given preference and priority, pending the formulation of the TP Strategy. This TP Strategy is a multi-year, multi-stakeholder strategy, approved by the President to expand and diversify the productive capabilities of our domestic enterprises and to empower them to produce and offer increasingly diverse and sophisticated products and services.
There are some misconceptions about Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino)—what it is about and what it aims to accomplish. One of the goals of Tatak Pinoy is to help our industries become globally competitive. It is not about protecting local companies from competition. Neither is it using patriotism to forgive products of poor quality or shoddy workmanship, as well as services that are sub-par of global standards. The confusion is understandable given that the term Tatak Pinoy connotes nationalism. But at its very core, Tatak Pinoy is about trying to provide whole-of-nation support to Filipino enterprises that have exhibited the potential and the commitment to become world-class and globally recognized. It is also about trying to learn as much as we can from wherever we can, updating ourselves to the world’s most advanced technologies and imbibing the most forward of horizons in our development plans.
Tatak Pinoy is not about being hard-lined for local brands per se. It is about emphasizing our desire to upgrade our capabilities to such a level where Filipino workers are making world-class products here in the Philippines.
There are several ways of going about this. One avenue is through education, by ramping up investments in our education system, and pushing through with policy reforms that ensure our students get the best quality education. Some thought should be paid to our country emulating what others like Vietnam, Indonesia, China, and India did, when their respective governments sent so many of their scholars to pursue advanced degrees abroad.
The downside to such course of action however is time. It takes decades before interventions in education actually redound to the benefit of our economy. That is why a second, but complementary avenue, is for us to court foreign investments and companies into the Philippines now, on the assumption that there will be technology spillovers, and talent upskilling.
This jives with what President Marcos said before the executives of top German companies during his recent visit to Germany where he presented a proposed solution to the labor issues hounding the European nation. “If Germany lacks workers, why not establish factories in the Philippines? They will have many brilliant, hard-working and trustworthy Filipino workers to choose from,” the President said while adding that several German firms that are already present in the country are keen on expanding their operations.
While we upskill our people through better education, we want German companies — who are among the world’s best engineering and technology firms — to locate here in the Philippines to give our people better opportunities to be exposed to world-class technology and processes. In short, gain the know-how to be truly globally competitive.
Furthermore, in the Tatak Pinoy Act we included a preference in public procurement for domestically produced goods, for a period of 10 years, and only for products identified in the TP Strategy, to be targeted for development. We also reflected this in the committee report of the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA) or the measure that will amend R.A. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act that is being tackled presently in plenary at the Senate. These provisions give the government a policy instrument to use public procurement—estimated to be a significant portion of our total GDP annually—as a tool for industrial development.
Once enacted, the NGPA will complement the Tatak Pinoy Act in helping local industries become the driver of growth and enhancing investor confidence in the Philippines by ensuring transparency, fairness, efficiency and predictability in the processes when dealing with the government. We have a lot to look forward to with these two laws. The dream of the Philippines joining the ranks of industrialized nations is no longer far-fetched. These are exciting times indeed. ([email protected]/Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara)
(Senator Sonny Angara has been in public service for 19 years — nine years as representative of the lone district of Aurora, and 10 as senator. He has authored, co-authored, and sponsored more than 330 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate)