Marcos OKs 2026 Strategic Investment Priority Plan to boost economy, jobs

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved the 2026 Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) that seeks to guide government incentives, prioritize innovation, and boost job creation for Filipinos.

This was contained in Memorandum Order (MO) No. 47 signed on May 21, 2026 by the President and published on the Official Gazette website.

Marcos said the 2026 SIPP is “aligned with the policies of the National Government embodied in the AmBisyon Natin 2040, PAGTANAW 2050, Trabaho Para sa Bayan Plan, and the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.”

He approved the SIPP as recommended by the Board of Investments (BOI) and tasked concerned government agencies to issue the necessary regulations to ensure that it is implemented in a “synchronized and integrated manner.”

Under the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 (NIRC), the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) or the Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) shall grant the appropriate tax incentives to registered business enterprises (RBEs) only to the extent of their approved registered project or activity under the SIPP.

“The industry of the registered project or activity shall be prioritized according to national industrial strategy specified in the SIPP, and the SIPP shall define the coverage of the tiers and provide the conditions for qualifying the activities,” MO No. 47 said.

Tier I shall include activities that:

• Have high potential for job creation;
• Take place in sectors with market failures resulting in underprovision of basic goods and services;
• Generate value creation through innovation, upgrading or moving up the value chain;
• Provide essential support for sectors that are critical to industrial development; or
• Are emerging owing to potential comparative advantage.

Tier II shall include activities that produce supplies, parts and components, and intermediate services that are not locally produced but are critical to industrial development and import-substituting activities, including crude oil refining.

Tier III shall include activities that:

• Involve research and development resulting in demonstrably significant value-added, higher productivity, improved efficiency, breakthroughs in science and health, and high-paying jobs; Generate new knowledge and intellectual property registered and/or licensed in the Philippines; Involve commercialization of patents, industrial designs, copyrights and utility models owned or co-owned by an RBE;
• Involve highly technical manufacturing; or
• Are critical to the structural transformation of the economy and require substantial catch-up efforts, including, but not limited to cyber-security, artificial intelligence, and datacenter facilities.

Marcos ordered all IPAs to “facilitate and expedite, to the extent possible, the setting up and conduct of registered projects or activities, including assistance in coordinating with the local government units (LGUs) and other government agencies” through a one-stop action center.

Meanwhile, LGUs and other government agencies shall coordinate with the concerned IPA and comply with Republic Act No. 11032 or the “Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018,” particularly in the processing of permits, licenses, and other requirements. — JMA, GMA News