The House Bills 10109, which seeks to establish special economic zones in the municipalities of San Jose and Magsaysay, and 10255, which seeks to create in the municipality of Paluan were tackled in the hearing of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Sen. Imee Marcos joint by the Committees on Local Government, Ways and Means, and Finance, this morning, January 11, 2022.
The two ecozones bills for the province were authored by Cong. Josephine R. Sato and was approved by the Joint Committee on Economic Affairs and Trade and Industry of the House of Representatives in February 2020 and already passed on its final reading on the last quarter of 2021.
Other than the two Occidental Mindoro bills, H. No. 10108 - Metro Iloilo Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10216 - Oriental Mindoro Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10217 - Ilocos Sur Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10218 - Bislig Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10243 - Bacolod Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10244 - Northern Bohol Special Economic Zone Act are also deliberated by the Committee.
Occidental Mindoro congressional aspirant Leodie “Odie” Tarriela also included as one of his campaign agenda is the establishment of an economic zone somewhere in the province, if ever elected.
Both the supporters of Tarriela and Sato, though the two are not direct rivals this coming May election, dwelt more on who first initiated or proposed the establishment of such special economic zones than scrutinizing the difference between what Tarriela is proposing and what Sato had proposed. Their supporters and fans resulted in childish bantering instead of probing an issue. Or take a closer look at the importance and the viability of such endeavors in our province. The discussions on the issue in social media by their supporters some days back are pointless, like a newly-bought pencil.
As I see it, though Sato had been asking the Senate to urgently act on the matter, there are still a lot of things to be settled by the concerned committees of the senate including the National Economic and Development Agency or NEDA and the Department of Finance. These things should have been discussed by their respective supporters rather than petty generalized fandom comments and childish opinions.
Some gridlocks need to be addressed before the bills’ final approval like for instance the incentive systems for the stakeholders, some issues on administrative control of the economic zones, and other things that should be harmonized with the Omnibus Investment Code.
At point-blank, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked Asec. Atty. Valery Joy Brion of DOF about the chances of getting the nod of the department on such special economic zones said that based on the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), such zones do not alleviate poverty and do not always guarantee economic success. Brion added that there must be a Master Plan complete with cost-benefit analysis so that the agencies in the executive department could deeply look into the bills. Brion stood firm to her conviction that the DOF will object to the bills at least for now. “Currently, we do not support them,” Brion said in a senate hearing via Zoom. However, the DOF and the NEDA are willing to sit with the Senate and the LGUs to facilitate the immediate realization of the proposals, according to NEDA’s Asec. Mercedita Sombilla.
Another matter that needs to be ironed out is the cost-sharing between the LGU and the national government. It is important and it lies on the Fiscal Incentives Review Board or FIRB, an interagency government body given the authority by the Philippine law to grant tax incentives to registered business enterprises. The sharing scheme should also be part of the laws on ecozones. Further, as agreed by Sen. Drilon and Gov. Presbiterio Velasco, Jr. of Marinduque, a sunset provision should also be incorporated. The provision, also called sunset law, is a clause in a statute or regulation that expires automatically on a specified date. A sunset provision provides for an automatic repeal of the entire or sections of the law once that sunset date is reached. In short, provisions in ecozone acts should have an expiry date, if we are to follow the thoughts of Sen. Drilon and Gov. Velasco who are both lawyers. The former was once justice secretary while the latter was a former associate justice of the Supreme Court.
When asked by Sen. Marcos if there’s such duplication in the two Occidental Mindoro ecozone bills, Cong. Sato confidently told Sen. Marcos that Paluan and San Jose-Magsaysay areas are at the opposite end of the province and besides, the Paluan ecozone is specific in shipbuilding and dockyard facility while the one to be established in the San Jose-Magsaysay area is for agriculture. Sato further explained that it is now high time for the province to move forward to agro-industrialization with the help of these two ecozones.
Well, the LGUs can create economic zones and free zones by encouraging the private sector to do it rather than the government so that the fiscal burden or the funds or resources are not taken out from the national coffer. Is that what the aspiring congressman has in mind?
That I do not know.
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