MANILA, Philippines - Taguig City second district Rep. Freddie Tiñga, chairman of the House information and communications technology (ICT) committee, and Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chairman of the appropriations committee, have taken the initial bold steps to spearhead the development of a ‘Silicon corridor’ in the country. The two lawmakers recently led a congressional delegation on a successful visit to Silicon Valley in northern California where they met with top officials of Cisco Systems, Synopsys, Google, Genentech and Electronic Arts. They also visited the campuses of Apple and the Plug and Play Tech Center, an incubator of start-up technology companies. The delegation also held a roundtable discussion with Filipino tech entrepreneur Dr. Diosdado Banatao, principal of Tallwood Venture Capital, a leading venture capital company in the Silicon Valley. Photo shows Tinga (second from right) and Abaya (fourth from left) with the Philippine delegation that met with Google officials in California. With them are Reps. Ben Evardone, Bingbong Crisologo, Rene Relampagos, Tomas Apacible and Rachel Arenas, Taguig Vice Mayor George Elias and Frankie Endriga.