[ Manila Bulletin Online ] April 11, 2008
The Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (FCP) have officially brought to the attention of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno the "disastrous implications" of the spot zoning undertaken by the city government of Manila in Pandacan which the tribunal upheld, primarily in the point of view of foreign investors.
In a letter to the chief magistrate dated April 10, 2008, the foreign chambers stressed that the ordered relocation of the Pandacan oil depots as an upshot of the SC ruling justifies legality of spot zoning by local government units, which they view "will be a serious disincentive to investments."
The letter was signed by Rick M Santos, president of the American Chamber of Commerce; Richard Barclay, president of the Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce; Stewart Hall, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce; Hubert D’Aboville, president of the European Chamber of Commerce; Toshifumi Inami, president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Jae J. Jang, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce.
The first casualties of the spot zoning implemented with the City of Manila’s passage of Ordinance No. 8027 were the major oil companies Petron Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Chevron Philippines, Inc. — which have been ordered by the Supreme Court to relocate their oil facilities in another site.
They indicated that "if local government spot zone everywhere, industries will not be assured of continuous tenure in the areas in which they operate."
The three oil companies has a pending motion for reconsideration at the Supreme Court en banc, even as they are also at the process of preparing their comprehensive relocation plan in compliance to the tribunal’s earlier ruling. They are given 90 days to draw up their depot relocation blueprint.
Given the negative feedback from the investing community on "spot zoning" as a policy for LGUs, the foreign chambers sounded off that they have "sincerely trusted the Supreme Court en banc (that) it will reverse its earlier decision."
"As it stands, it would be difficult to make an investment decision anywhere for any facility as we may be zoned out anytime," the foreign investors said.
The Pandacan re-zoning they said could be a "dangerous precedent" because by ruling that Ordinance 8027 is valid "spot zoning or that which narrowly focuses on a particularly property to the economic detriment of its land owner now becomes a legitimate exercise of police power by local government."
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