Tatak Pinoy law to bolster gov’t job creation efforts

MANILA: Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on Wednesday said the newly signed Tatak Pinoy Act would bolster the government efforts to create more jobs for Filipinos. 'We thank the President for always making jobs a priority goal of his administration. We also commend Senator Sonny Angara for relentlessly pushing for this measure to support our local industries and create employment opportunities for our kababayans' Villanueva said in a news release. He said Tatak Pinoy Act will complement the Trabaho Para Sa Bayan (TBP) Act which aims to create a national masterplan to address unemployment, underemployment and youth unemployment. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed both Tatak Pinoy Act or Republic Act (RA) 11981 last Monday and Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act on Sept. 27, 2023. Villanueva, the principal sponsor of Tatak Pinoy and author of TBP law, said the new law will help fund the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a comprehensive multi-year strategy. RA 11981 encourages, supports and pro motes production and offering by domestic enterprises of local products and services that are globally competitive. It also harmonizes with RA 11962 in emphasizing the value of human resources by developing a roadmap that will ensure support for target sectors and activities; promote academe-industry linkage to develop program that will match the demands of the industry; and include different modalities of training, skills development, upskilling/reskilling and lifelong learning. 'Tatak Pinoy will be a game-changer in opening up immense opportunities for our local industries and the much-needed jobs for our skilled and hardworking kababayans,' Villanueva said. It will also help to identify programs and requirements, such as innovation infrastructure and facilities for advanced research and incubation, and national and regional innovation hubs to feature relevant advanced and emerging technology centers. A Tatak Pinoy Council will be created to ensure that the domestic preference under the law is extended to locally produced, sourced or manufactured construction materials. The Council is also tasked to identify and advance strategic, market-driven and customer-centric research and development activities and technology transfer initiatives that are critical to the implementation of the Tatak Pinoy Strategy. The Council will ensure that Tatak Pinoy investment activities and projects are included in the list of priority activities that will be under the Strategic Investments Priority Plan. Under the law, programs and projects for the enhancement of capabilities of domestic enterprises should be included in the expenditure priorities and national government fiscal program.