The Senate has approved on third and final reading the Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) bill that will boost the efforts to elevate the Philippines to the ranks of the world’s strongest and most vibrant economies.
A total of 23 senators, from the majority and the minority, voted in favor of Senate Bill 2426 or the Tatak Pinoy Act, introduced and sponsored by Finance Committee Chairman Senator Sonny Angara.
An advocacy of Angara since 2019, Tatak Pinoy started out as an idea on how to make the Philippine economy stronger by empowering businesses and industries to produce better, more unique and sophisticated goods and services.
“Tatak Pinoy will strengthen the partnership between the government and the private sector. With better coordination between the two sides, government will be able to implement more projects that will benefit the private sector—be it infrastructure or other initiatives such as those that will improve the skills and capabilities of our workforce,” Angara said.
Angara expressed his gratitude to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for treating the Tatak Pinoy bill as an urgent piece of legislation, and to Senate President Migz Zubiri and House Speaker Martin Romualdez for reflecting this in the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council priority bills.
He also extended his gratitude to Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and the other senators who provided their invaluable inputs on the measure.
The proposed Tatak Pinoy Act is consistent with the goal of the administration to bring about structural transformation in line with its eight-point socioeconomic agenda.
It is also consistent with the Philippine Export Development Plan 2023-2028 insofar as making locally-produced goods more globally competitive and expanding the level of exports to other countries.
Angara explained, “With Tatak Pinoy, the goal is to improve the competitiveness of our industries so that they can grow faster and produce more better paying jobs for our people.”
Tatak Pinoy was inspired by the Atlas of Economic Complexity developed by Dr. Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard University and Cesar Hidalgo, who was with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now with the University of Toulouse in France, which analyzed why certain economies perform better than others.
The Atlas, which ranks the Philippines 33rd among 128 countries, hypothesizes that countries that are more economically complex develop and grow at a faster pace.
This means that countries that are able to produce more complex goods are more likely to experience higher growth rates since what they export are higher value products.
“The Philippines has a huge potential for growth that has yet to be untapped. With the Tatak Pinoy bill, we are confident that we will be able to help our industries in expanding their reach in the world market, provide a significant boost to our economy, and provide our people with greater opportunities to earn more,” Angara stressed.
“Nanawagan kami sa aming mga kasamahan sa Kamara na aksyunan na nila agad ang panukala. Agahan na po sana natin ang pag-pasa ng batas na ito, para makapagsimula na ang pagpaplano at trabaho para makapag-sanib-pwersa ang gobyerno at ang pribadong sektor para tuluungan ang mga industriyang Tatak Pinoy. Ang pagsasabatas ng Tatak Pinoy bill ay isang malinaw na hakbang para pabilisin pa lalo ang ating muling pag-angat at pagtamo sa bagong Pilipinas na ating pinapangarap,” the Senator added.
