Solon pushes business venture for retiring state workers

TACLOBAN CITY, June 18  -- A bill providing business opportunities to retiring government workers is now on its third and final reading in the House of Representatives, a party-list solon said on Monday.

House Bill 3335 filed in 2016 seeks to ensure that government workers who retire from service will still earn income, said An Waray Party-list Rep. Victoria Isabel Noel.

“They should not just rely on the minimal amount of their retirement benefits. They can still be productive by having their own income like putting up a business,” she said.

Noel hopes the bill will be approved by the House of Representatives, since it will have a counterpart bill in the Senate. Once ratified, it will be known as the “Government Employees Entrepreneurship Development Act”.

Noel said she filed the measure as her way of helping and encouraging retiring government workers to hone their entrepreneurial skills after working in the government.

Other government agencies like the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority and the Department of Trade and Industry will also be involved in providing assistance to the retiring government workers.

The proposed law has two major points -- to ensure the continuous flow of innovative and development-oriented government programs and projects for entrepreneurial development; and to ensure the creative use of highly competitive and resourceful government employees.

Once the bill is passed into law, entrepreneurial training programs will be established by government offices and agencies tasked to design post-government service entrepreneurship development programs for their employees, based on the guidelines prescribed by the Civil Service Commission.

The programs would be designed in such a way that it helps employees learn what they need to know to develop ideas and actualize them into successful businesses, and how to raise entrepreneurial opportunities in their respective provinces.

It will also introduce retiring employees to technology transfer systems and entrepreneurial networks, Noel added.

All government agencies would then extend post-service assistance to their respective retirees and include this as part of their human resources development plan.

The proposed bill also mandates the development of a post-service assistance program to aid aspiring entrepreneurs in the development and implementation of their ideas. (LAAA/PNA)