Konektadong Pinoy Act opens more opportunities for MSMEs, says expert

The Konektadong Pinoy Act, which lapsed into law in August, could open more business opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), according to an expert.

“If we’re able to make sure that there’s a stable connection in every household, that increases economic activity,” Mario C. Cerilles Jr., academic program director for master’s in international business law at Asian Institute of Management (AIM), told BusinessWorld in an interview.

“Which hopefully will also induce development in the country, and also for our business owners, particularly the small and medium enterprises, who rely a lot on the internet,” he added.

In the 2024 Internet Poverty Index by Austria-based data enterprise World Data Lab, the Philippines ranked 56th “internet-poor” out of 169 countries.

The study revealed that over 18.33 million Filipinos, or 15.9% of the total population, cannot afford a one gigabyte (GB) per month internet package, the third highest in the region.

“The idea is really to help the people, to make data sharing and data transfer more accessible,” said Mr. Cerilles, who is also the co-founder and managing partner at Cerilles & Fernan Intellectual Property Law (CFIP Law).

“A lot of the business transactions that we have now, they’re cross-border in nature,” he added. “So, even just a simple sale of goods there’s a lot of import-export and many of these start from contracts consummated via the internet.”

Republic Act No. 12234 or “An Act Establishing a Comprehensive and Inclusive Data Transmission and Connectivity Framework for the Philippines,” is known as the Konektadong Pinoy Act.

According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Konektadong Pinoy Law aims to expand internet access and improve digital services nationwide by streamlining the licensing process and promoting the sharing of infrastructure.

The DICT added that the law will enable new and small players to invest in data transmission infrastructure without requiring a legislative franchise, which the agency described as an “outdated requirement”.

DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel R. Aguda earlier this month said that the agency aimed to release the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the Konektadong Pinoy program during the first week of October but decided to push back to accommodate feedback from key industry stakeholders. — Almira Louise S. Martinez