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PCCI urges stronger Balik Probinsya efforts amid COVID-19


Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Balik Probinsya program

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) on Saturday said that efforts on the Balik Probinsya Program should be intensified as high population density became the major cause of the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019.

“With high population density becoming a major cause of the spread of the contagious COVID-19, we all the more must intensify the Balik Probinsya effort,” the PCCI said in a letter sent to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Due to this, PCCI president Ambassador Benedicto Yujuico and PCCI’s Balik Probinsya program chair Menardo Jimenez threw their support behind House Bill 6970.

House Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte, the lawmaker who filed the bill, said it seeks to harness public incentives to encourage individuals who have migrated to Metro Manila to return to their home provinces.

“Legislating the Balik Probinsya bill will relieve the socio-economic effects of urban congestion and concentration of economic activity in Metro Manila. It will assist in stimulating growth at the Philippine countryside as workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic are constrained to go back to their respective provinces,” Villafuerte said.

“By incentivizing business and other economic activities in the provinces, this bill will encourage workers in Metro Manila and other urban centers to go back to their hometowns where gainful employment awaits them,” he added.

Villafuerte also welcomed the support of the PCCI, saying that it will “encourage businesses to relocate or expand to rural areas via a slew of government come-ons such as tax breaks."

“The full support of PCCI, which is the biggest umbrella group of businesses in the country, should serve a strong impetus for both chambers of the Congress to put the proposed legislation fast-tracking Balik Probinsya among their top concerns this second legislative session,” he said. —LBG, GMA News

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