Sen. Grace Poe asked the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to submit the necessary data on the projected impact of the proposed amendments to the Public Service Act (PSA) on covered industries such as power generation, transportation, broadcasting, and telecommunications.
“Liberalizing certain sectors is going through a hurdle because of national security concerns that we have to balance with economic concerns. If you’re not going to make our argument strong enough by providing data, we might not be able to get what we want from here, which is the spirit of the law—liberalizing our economy,” said Poe.
Poe raised that while NEDA is the lead agency assigned to the PSA, there has been feedback saying the agency’s support to the crafting of the bill has been found wanting, particularly on research and data.
The senator asked the agency for information on how the Philippine economy and local sectors and industries will benefit from the passage of the bill.
“We will tackle the amendments by next week. If you’re really serious about having a successful version of the bill passed, I think that you should give us projections for telcos, airlines, and shipping, especially the foreign ownership limits in all countries,” Poe said.
The President certified as urgent the immediate passage of three measures that will boost the country’s economic recovery in the pandemic, one of those being the PSA.
NEDA Sec. Karl Chua indicated that should the PSA be passed, there will be marked interest especially in the telecommunications and transport sectors, considering the huge gap between what the country can provide and how much it actually needs.
Poe asked NEDA to be at the forefront and take responsibility in ensuring that his agency delivers due contributions to the bill to protect the public’s highest interest.
