Regulate risk, not progress, business leaders urged

MANILA, Philippines — The Artificial Intelligence Development and Regulation Act was presented before some of the country's most senior business leaders, policymakers and technology executives at the 2nd MAP x KPMG Technology Summit — themed "AI at Scale: Driving Value with Governance and Security” — last June 30. 

Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez (3rd District, Negros Occidental), who heads the Technical Working Group for Artificial Intelligence at the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology, used the gathering of roughly 300 delegates to make the case that responsible regulation and economic competitiveness are not opposing goals. 

"We should not stifle innovation, but we regulate the risk," he told the summit at Shangri-La The Fort in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, framing a credible AI law as an asset for Philippine business rather than a burden on it.

The measure he presented consolidates 26 bills, three resolutions and a privilege speech into a single substitute bill, establishing a phased Philippine AI Commission under the Department of Information and Communications Technology. 

Its core features include a Bill of Rights for every AI user, a regulator that must meet defined readiness requirements before it can exercise its powers, and clear prohibitions on the most harmful uses of the technology, among them AI-generated abuse imagery and AI-enabled vote manipulation.

Benitez emphasized that the draft was built on existing Philippine institutions and tailored to survive constitutional challenge, telling delegates that the team compared international frameworks but did not copy them.

He described the proposal as both a serious piece of legislation and a deliberately unfinished one, inviting the executives, regulators, and industry leaders in the room to pressure-test its provisions before the Technical Working Group reconvenes on July 13, 2026.

His participation placed a sitting legislator and primary author of the country's AI framework directly before the sectors the law will govern, positioning the Philippine approach as a model the country can offer the region this year. (Contributed story)