BP2 seen to create jobs in countryside
ON the occasion of Labor Day this Saturday, Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte on Friday appealed to President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte to certify as urgent the measure fast-tracking the Balik Probinsya,
Bagong Pagasa (BP2) program as a way to generate more investments outside Metro Manila and thus create a lot of jobs in the countryside in the long haul.
Villafuerte said House Bill (HB) 6970, which sets up a national action plan (NSP) for the President’s BP2 program, proposes a menu of incentives to entice investors to relocate or do business in the regions, thereby creating more jobs and livelihood opportunities outside the metropolis that would accelerate economic recovery from the pandemic and help reverse the decades-old problem of urban decongestion.
He noted that HB 6970 is meant to create jobs and drive strong growth outside the metropolis, to finally end the country’s traditional overreliance on Greater Manila as its primary source of employment and main engine of economic growth and development.
Villafuerte said the presidential endorsement of HB 6970 will complement the recent presidential endorsement for urgent congressional approval of three pending bills geared to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the country.
These three investor-friendly measures endorsed last week as urgent bills by President Duterte are those proposing amendments to the Foreign Investments Act (FIA), Public Service Act (PSA) and the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA).
“On top of finally decongesting Metro Manila and neighboring urban centers, putting President Duterte’s Balik Probinsya (BP2) program on the fast track via HB 6970 will encourage investors to set up shop in, or expand their present businesses in Greater Manila to, the regions,” said Villafuerte, “thereby leading at last to genuine and vibrant countryside or rural development that would spell more jobs for Filipino workers.”
