Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed a law on Wednesday imposing a 12% value-added tax on non-resident digital service providers including Netflix, HBO, and Disney.

This new law is one of the first revenue priority measures passed during Marcos' administration, covering online search engines, media, advertising, platforms, digital markets, commodities, and cloud computing services.

In a speech at the signing ceremony, Marcos said: "If you reap the benefits of a productive digital economy here, then you should also contribute to its growth." He added that the new law will balance tax revenues between local businesses and international digital platforms.

The Philippines is one of the countries with the highest mobile phone usage rate in the world. In a tight fiscal space, the country is leveraging revenue from tech giants for infrastructure and other government projects. According to the Philippine Department of Finance, the value-added tax on foreign digital services is expected to generate 79.5 billion pesos ($1.4 billion) in revenue over the next four years.