INTRODUCTION
We sign into law today two deeply significant bills whose high impact and multiplier effect will be felt throughout our entire national socio-economic networks in both their short- and long-term aspects.
LIBERALIZING THE BANKING SYSTEM
RA 7721 which amends the general banking act by widening the scope of operations of foreign banks is a milestone for the Philippine banking system. Its importance goes beyond the number of new foreign banks that will now be authorized to open in our land. This new law will trigger more efficient operations for local banks as well as facilitate new businesses and investments.

A more efficient system will result in higher investment deposit rates that, in turn, will increase domestic savings mobilization.

For 45 years we have kept our banking system closed to foreigners in the belief that this approach was in the country’s best interest.

But as the world continues to change, so must we be flexible in meeting the new challenges that technological innovations have ushered in. This era of a globalized economy offers tremendous opportunities for economic development which we must seize. The key to tapping the international markets, as the NICs around us have discovered, is a more open economy.

This new law is one more clear signal to the world that we are ready to compete in this new environment, and are deeply serious in our aim to put an end to protectionist tendencies that have coddled many of our industries into inefficiency and non-competitiveness.

We have set for ourselves the ambitious goal of turning the country into a newly industrializing economy (NIE) by the turn of the century. The resource requirements of this endeavor are tremendous and cannot be met unless we can generate savings and capital more vigorously, both from within and from the rest of the world, to finance the needed investments.

In opening up the banking system, our medium-term objective is to attract more foreign investments. We want foreign banks to manifest a strong commitment to the welfare of our country and develop the credibility and expertise to pull investors into availing of profitable Philippine opportunities.

Our long-term objective, of course, is to convince these investors to stay.

Moreover, we expect foreign banks to provide our entrepreneurs with relevant and reliable information on foreign markets that will enable them to export more effectively. This is a key element of our development strategy.

Equally, the entry of high-level competition is expected to push our own banking industry to even greater heights of creativity, innovation and integration to better serve the local market and eventually, even the regional market. I have full confidence that our homegrown banks are ready and able to compete.
THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION
No less significant to our people is RA 7722 creating the Commission on Higher Education.

For some time now, we have observed the symptoms that indicate the failure of our institutions of higher learning to provide our people with relevant quality education in accordance with the needs of national development.

These indicators are many: low passing rates in government-prescribed board exams; so-called college graduates who can hardly articulate, much less communicate their ideas; and most telling of all, the alarming number of college graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed. The skills and training they have worked so hard and spent so much to attain do not fit our local manpower needs such that many have been forced to go abroad and accept jobs inferior to what they deserve.

We do not fault any specific agency nor any single institution for this decline. The weakness in our educational system, an oversight for much too long, was brought about by various factors. We need not dwell on those mistakes. The fact remains that we must now reform our system of higher education if we must aspire to be one vigorous and competitive nation. We must revitalize higher education, refocus the goals of our students and reinfuse in them the will to contribute effectively to the nation’s socio-economic progress.

The commission created by this law is an independent body that will use its energies into transforming our institutions of higher learning into a potent collective instrument for the nation’s human resource development. Being separate from the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), the commission will not burden an already overburdened decs, although our DECS Secretary will initially sit as the commission’s chairman.

The commission’s membership will draw from the vast pool of experts we have in the social and behavioral sciences, the humanities and culture, and the pure and applied sciences.

The commission will also be tasked to administer the higher education development fund to strengthen higher education in our country.

This law also provides for the smooth transfer of authority in higher education from the decs to the commission.

We do not forget that our people are our strongest natural resource. With RA 7722, we foresee a brighter future for the next batches of tertiary-level graduates as most of them will likely suffer no more from the frustration and indignity of being unemployed.

With a cost-effective manpower plan boosted by this commission and with the other educational reforms already in place towards our goal to become a newly industrializing country, we march to the next century with more confidence and greater capabilities.
CLOSING
I thank and congratulate the principal authors of these bills that have now become laws — both from the Senate and the House of Representatives — for their perspicacity and their commitment to our people. The studies and debates that preceded the passage of these bills have resulted in the crafting of laws that allow our people to be more responsive with regard to fast-changing conditions in the world.

My congratulations, too, to all members of congress who have paved the way for the timely enactment of these laws. Let us keep proving to our people that the productive collaboration between the legislative and the executive branches cannot but result in enhanced welfare and sustained progress for the Filipino people.

Maraming salamat at mabuhay!