The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified on Tuesday the Bicameral Committee Report for the creation of the Philippine Space Agency and the Philippine Space Development and Utilization Policy.
Dr. Rogel Mari Sese, the Filipino astrophysicist who helped write the bill, expressed on social media his elation and excitement towards the news.
“The bill will now be passed to Malacañang for President Duterte to sign into law,” Sese told the BusinessMirror. “It is done!”
The Senate Bill 1983 which was sponsored by Senator Bam Aquino, the chairman of the committee on science was approved last May 20. His coauthors are Senate President Vicente Sotto III, and Sens. Loren Legarda and Sonny Angara. On the other hand, House Bill 8541 which was introduced by Reps. Erico Aristotle Aumentado and Seth Frederick Jalosjos in 2016 and was approved in December 2018, is the counterpart bill of the House of Representatives.
Once signed into law, the PhilSA will be an attached agency to the Office of the President and will be immediately enacted with a 2 billion peso funding on its first year.
According to Sese, the Philippines will be the world’s newest emerging space nation and will take place in the international space community.
“With a national space agency, we can now perform and execute policies such as research, application and international collaboration that can benefit the Filipino nation,” Sese said.