Villanueva welcomes Trabaho law IRR signing

SENATE Majority Leader Emmanuel Joel Villanueva on Tuesday welcomed the signing of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Trabaho Para sa Bayan (TPB) Act, which he principally sponsored and authored in the Senate.

Villanueva said the TPB Act or Republic Act (RA) 11962 aims to address unemployment and underemployment woes in the country by creating a master plan that will synergize all government efforts toward a coherent and cohesive employment policy.

In September 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law RA 11962, or the “TBP” Act (Jobs for the Nation Act), and directed agencies to hasten the issuance of the law’s IRR.

The President said the law is “a significant milestone toward the sustainable and inclusive development of our country.”

Likewise, he said that the law “will help address issues such as low-quality jobs, skills mismatch, and underemployment as well as “the need to update the skills of our workers and promote the use of digital technologies, particularly for our MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises).”

“I therefore direct the council and all concerned government agencies to fast-track the issuance of the IRR of the law so that our workers and stakeholders can immediately benefit from it.”

Furthermore, Marcos said that the law provides for the creation of the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Interagency Council, which “will craft a master plan for employment generation and recovery.”

The council is chaired by the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and co-chaired by the secretaries of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE).

Also, Marcos asked executives of DoLE and NEDA “to harmonize the labor and employment plan 2023-2028 and the Trabaho Para sa Bayan plan to ensure that all government efforts and resources will be effectively and efficiently managed.”

“To our businesses, especially our MSMEs, we will continue to provide support and other incentives such as increased access to financing and capital to promote self-reliance and spur employment generation,” the President said.