There's a bill in the House of Representatives that has passed the third reading and should be given priority by the Senate — the e-Governance Bill or House Bill 7327. It's a bill that seeks to institutionalize the transition of the government to e-governance in the digital age.

What I specifically like about this bill is the provision for establishing the ICT Academy. We must pay particular attention to the growth of a highly competitive modern service sector that has become a significant pillar in our economy — the Philippine outsourcing industry.

The ICT-heavy outsourcing industry is a labor-intensive sector that may be a silver lining in the country's goal to achieve industrialization and reduce income inequality.

One of the country's primary sources of socio-economic inequality is the poor manufacturing growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Our economy should have shifted from agriculture to manufacturing of tradeable goods as a classical path to modern economic growth. The lack of jobs forced our labor to migrate, and our economy largely relied on the remittances of the service-sector exports.

Instead of manufacturing jobs, our labor shifts from subsistence agriculture to the subsistence service sector coupled with urban migration. This shift came with a high social cost, too — family members being separated from each other. Most of the exports are low-skilled. 

Industrialization and the reduction of inequality remained elusive, too. Our Gross Domestic Product per capita in 2022 is the 4th lowest in ASEAN, outranking only Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.  The Philippines also has the highest GINI coefficient (the higher the number, the higher the income inequality) among the six largest economies in ASEAN at 41.58 percent (Malaysia-39.37 percent Indonesia-38.33 percent, Vietnam-35.58 percent, Singapore-35.58 percent, and Thailand's-34.55 percent). Currently, 57 percent of our population is considered poor.

A directive under the 1987 Constitution is for the legislature to prioritize measures to reduce socioeconomic inequality by equitably diffusing wealth for the common good. Indeed, social justice is one of the core values of our Constitution. This is why it commands Congress to give the highest priority to measures that will reduce income inequality. After all, growth should be inclusive and sustainable.