Photo Release

Tatak Pinoy initiatives: Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva gives the highlights of Senate Bill No. 2426, or the Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) Act during the plenary session Tuesday, August 29, 2023. Villanueva said a Tatak Pinoy strategy would be adopted to make Philippine products and services more globally competitive if the bill would be enacted into law. He said the six-year action plan would help address Filipinos’ preferences for imported products and reduce the country’s deficit pegged at $3.9 billion in June 2023. “The Tatak Pinoy initiatives will not only promote the country’s brand and identity but more importantly lift millions out of poverty, contributing to this administration’s goal of nine percent poverty rate by 2028, and create more jobs for the people, helping achieve the projected four percent to five percent unemployment rate by 2026,” Villanueva said in his co-sponsorship speech. At the same time, Villanueva reminded the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) of the national reintegration program under Republic Act No. 11641 which calls for the DMW to develop and implement a full cycle and comprehensive reintegration program for both documented and undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). He said the program shall provide support needed by the OFWs such as economic, social, psychosocial, gender responsive and other necessities. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)