Ahead of his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday signed into law two bills that aim to enhance government efficiency and protect financial rights in the Philippines.
The first law, the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA), updates Republic 9184 by streamlining the procurement process from three months to 60 days through standardized forms and electronic procurement.
“The NGPA streamlines the procurement process from three months to just sixty days by standardizing procurement forms and institutionalizing electronic procurement,” Mr. Marcos said during the ceremonial signing in Malacañang Palace.
“One of the salient features of this law is the provision of eleven new modalities of procurement. This will afford greater flexibility for government agencies in choosing how to best acquire goods and services,” he added.
The newly signed NGPA introduces 11 new procurement modalities, offering government agencies greater flexibility in acquiring goods and services.
It also implements the Most Economically Advantageous Responsive Bid, allowing for qualitative evaluation of bids, and includes strategic procurement planning and sustainable practices to address environmental concerns.
The second law, the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA), targets online scams by requiring financial institutions to implement safeguards to protect citizens’ accounts.
“To combat the surge in crimes involving scams online, this new law mandates financial institutions to implement necessary safeguards to protect our citizens’ accounts and this is essential in this time as cybercriminals use technology to defraud fellow Filipinos — causing not only personal economic loss through them but also a loss of trust in financial institutions,” Marcos said.
“It will protect our people from falling prey to perpetrators who target their banks and e-wallet accounts,” he added.
The new law defines and penalizes money laundering, social engineering schemes, and economic sabotage, among other offenses.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is authorized to investigate financial accounts involved in prohibited acts and apply for cybercrime warrants.
“I hope that, through this law, we can deter the majority of the financial scams that we have been seeing while at the same time fostering greater trust in our digitization efforts,” Marcos said.
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