LOCAL business groups have tagged better employment opportunities for Filipinos as one of the priorities they wish included in the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Makati Business Club (MBC) Chairman Edgar O. Chua said the business group has listed down around nine priority measures that they wish to see in the President’s second Sona on July 24.
However, Chua only zeroed in on the top three measures that the MBC is looking at. These three are the Ease of Paying Taxes, the Apprenticeship Bill and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
On the first bill, Chua said, “Apprenticeship is one which will also address two things: one is enhancing the competency of our staff—of our people. And then second is it will lead to better employment opportunities for them.”
In May 2023, the MBC released a statement urging the Senate to prioritize passage of their version of the measure.
The business group earlier said that passing the Apprenticeship Bill will enable businesses to train workers for available jobs and higher-skill jobs.
“Such a bill would allow adequate time for training—in line with practices in some of the world’s most labor-friendly countries—while ensuring it is not used to violate labor rights,” MBC said in May.
Another priority reform that the MBC chairman unveiled is the Ease of Paying Taxes. In fact, last May, the business group released a statement urging the Senate to pass the measure.
“An Ease of Paying Taxes law will make it easier for all taxpayers, especially micro and small taxpayers, to do their duty to fund government infrastructure, programs, services, and national security,” MBC said in its statement in May.
It will also enable businesses, especially MSMEs, to focus more time and effort on creating more and better jobs, the group said.
Chua also cited the PPP among the priority measures/programs that the business group wishes to land in the Sona of the president.
“Given the fiscal space, the very limited fiscal space [of] the government…then the PPP should really be pushed so that we don’t slow down the country.
We need to continue and even expand our growth rate,” Chua told reporters on the sidelines of the MBC “F2F with Cab Secs featuring Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual” recently.
Meanwhile, for the Management Association of the Philippines’s part, MAP President Benedicta Du-Baladad urged the government anew to declare malnutrition as a top priority.
“There’s a different impact if it lands in SONA because then all the government agencies that are involved in that program have to step up and do concrete measures but what we want is, there is also a budget accompanying those measures so these are sustained…and they can work,” Du-Baladad told reporters on the sidelines of MAP General Membership Meeting on “Business Opportunities in Asean.”
Image credits: Aaron Favila/AP