TACLOBAN CITY- An Waray party-list Rep.Victoria Isabel Noel said that her bill providing business opportunities to government workers who are to retire from service is now on its third and final reading at the House of Representatives.
Noel said that the main purpose of her bill, numbered as House Bill 3335, is to ensure that government workers who will retire from service will remain productive and will continue to have an income of their own.
“They should not just rely on their retirement benefits which are not that big (of amount). They can still be productive by having their own income like putting up a business,” she said.
Noel filed the said bill in 2016 and was recently approved on third reading.
She hope that HB 3335 will be approved by the Lower House as she disclosed that her bill will have its counterpart at the Senate.
Once it becomes a law, it will be known as the “Government Employees Entrepreneurship Development Act.”
According to Noel, she filed the measure as her way to help and encourage retiring government workers hone their entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for better economic opportunities after working with government service.
Other government agencies like the TESDA (Technical Education Skills and Development Authority) and DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) will also be involved in providing assistance to the retiring government workers.
Noel said that the law has two major points, first to ensure the continuous flow of innovative and development oriented government programs and projects for entrepreneurial development and second to ensure the creative utilization of highly competitive and resourceful government employees whether in services or post-service.
With the passage of the bill into law, entrepreneurial training programs will be established by the government offices and agencies shall prepare a post-service government service entrepreneurship development program for their employees based on the guidelines prescribed by the Civil Service Commission.
She added that it will be designed in such a manner as to help employees learn what they need to know to develop ideas and actualize them into successful businesses and how to increase entrepreneurial opportunities in their respective municipalities, provinces and regions.
It will also introduce the employees to technology transfer systems, entrepreneurial networks she added.
As a post service assistance to employees through this law, all government agencies shall extend post-service assistance to their respective retirees and shall include this as part of their human resources development plan.
The proposed bill also mandates the development of a post-service assistance program to backstop aspiring entrepreneurs in the development and implementation of their ideas.
The program will cover the entirety of the venture creation process from generation to building viable business. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA with report, JOEY A. GABIETA)
