SPEAKER Martin Romualdez on Friday assured the House of Representatives’ commitment to intensify efforts on providing legal framework for the country’s digital transformation necessary to foster economic recovery and spur growth.
Romualdez made the guarantee following President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s participation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (Apec) 29th Leaders’ Meeting (AELM), where he cited the need to narrow the digital divide among the region’s economies to open more opportunities for cross-border trade and investments, while fostering inclusive growth.
The speaker pointed out that the House Committee on Trade and Industry has already approved a consolidated version of the proposed Internet Transaction Act, or the e-Commerce Law, which is among the 20 priority measures the Chief Executive mentioned in his State of the Nation Address (Sona).
The bill proposes to create an e-commerce bureau to regulate Internet-based 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, also among the priority measures of President Marcos in his Sona,” Romualdez said.
The other week, the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology convened its technical working group to consolidate and fine-tune the provisions of the proposed act.
Romualdez is the principal author of House Bill (HB) 3, or the proposed e-Governance Act of 2022. His coauthors are House Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Representative Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, as well as Tingog Party-list representatives Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre.
In filing HB 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 grow and prosper.
In his APEC intervention, Marcos Jr. 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 work challenges through human-resource development.”
The president also cited initiatives of the Philippines to set the stage for the country to thrive in the digital economy such as the e-Commerce Philippine Roadmap 2022, the Philippine Innovation Act, and the Innovative Start-Up Act.
Said roadmap seeks to make e-commerce synonymous with “easy commerce: as easy as pointing your finger towards a direction, as tapping your fingers on the keyboard, as clicking your mouse, as pressing a button,” according to the Department of Trade and Industry.
On the other hand, the Philippine Innovation Act, or Republic Act (RA) 11293, aims to generate and scale up action in all levels and areas of education, training, research and development toward promoting innovation and internationalization activities of MSMEs as drivers of sustainable and inclusive growth.