Villafuerte: OTOP boosting export programs for MSME exporters
A lawmaker on Sunday said he sees the enactment of the law institutionalizing the “One Town, One Product” (OTOP) program as “timely” as it “dovetails” with a recent directive by President Marcos for concerned government agencies to implement programs and projects meant to develop and promote Philippine exports.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said that Republic Act (RA) No. 11960, which institutionalized the OTOP program of the Department and Trade and Industry (DTI), provides for a strategic program to round off the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023-2028, which President Marcos is banking on to make our products more competitive overseas and our economy more resilient and inclusive post-pandemic by energizing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The Palace issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 23 last June 20 in step with the President’s approval of the PEDP 2023-2028.
Sixty days after the effectivity of MC 23, concerned agencies must submit to the Export Development Council (EDC) and to the Executive Secretary an inventory of relevant programs, activities and projects which are aligned with the strategies under the PEDP 2023-2028.
Villafuerte explained that the OTOP Law seeks to support small entrepreneurs and stimulate economic activity, especially in the countryside.
He said the enactment of the OTOP Law is also well-timed as the Philippines has just joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the biggest free trade pact that could benefit Filipino exporters by way of possibly higher sales of their lower-taxed goods to other RCEP member-economies.
RA 11960 was signed by President Marcos last week along with RA 11958, which rationalized the disability pension of veterans; and RA 11959, which aims to strengthen the conservation and protection of our cultural heritage through cultural mapping and an enhanced cultural heritage education program.
As Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual has pointed out, the PEDP 2023-2028 aims to boost the country’s competitiveness in merchandise exports, given that the Philippines–as Pascual noted—is “a laggard in exports, particularly in the export of goods—those merchandise exports,” Villafuerte said.
And the “OTOP Philippines Act” will help fix this weakness, according to Villafuerte, as it proposes a package of interventions to improve the quality of products that our towns have to offer and intensify government efforts to market them abroad.
He explained that in bolstering the six-year PEDP of the Marcos administration, “the OTOP Law will lead to a more inclusive growth as its intervention programs are meant to energize local entrepreneurs and industries, especially those in the countryside, and create more jobs and livelihood opportunities for rural folk.”
It seeks to boost MSMEs with viable products to sell by providing them with a package of assistance for developing new and innovative products with significant improvement in the areas of quality, product development, design, packaging, standards compliance, marketability, production capability and brand development.
This measure will institutionalize the DTI’s OTOP Philippines program to serve as the government’s stimulus package for the promotion of MSMEs in the countryside through the use of indigenous raw materials and the utilization of local skills and talents, he said.
Villafuerte said that in his home province of CamSur, for example, there is the P230-million Sustainable Agriculture and Fishery Enterprises (SAFE) Innovation Hub, which is being built as a coconut processing and marketing center in the province’s capital of Pili.
Villafuerte told the President this world-class facility is expected to be fully operational in three to six months.
President Marcos visited this facility last March when he went to CamSur to break ground on a trailblazing, high-rise mass housing project with 10,000 units—the first such joint venture that the Administration has undertaken in partnership with a provincial local government unit (LGU), under its ambitious Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program.
Villafuerte noted that President Marcos launched PEDP 2023-2028 to–in the words of the Chief Executive–“bring up our game” to double our country’s export level from $126.8 billion this year to $240.5 billion in 2028.
