[ Manila Bulletin Online ] August 14, 2008
By MALOU M. MOZO
CEBU CITY — A Cebuano congressman fears the request by many local government units (LGUs) in the country for special economic zone accreditations would lead to stiffer competition and eventually put off potential investors.
"There are too many applications for economic zone accreditations, even by some areas that are not yet ready," said Rep. Ramon Durano VI (Cebu, fifth district).
"Instead of luring locators to the economic zone, these areas may end up competing with each other," he added.
In an interview recently, Durano, who is also the chairman of the House committee on economic affairs, admitted there are "gray areas" in Republic Act 7916, also known as the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995, as it provides two ways to obtain economic zone accreditation.
One is through seeking accreditation from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), while the other is through legislation.
Durano said at present, the economic-enterprise committee, which manages all economic zone applications, is "informally" adopting the criteria set by PEZA in screening applicants.
He said there are now 17 bills for legislated economic zones pending in the Lower House, including the recently endorsed House Bill 1319, the proposal for a province-wide economic zone in Cebu.
The bill, also known as the Cebu Economic Development Zone (CEDZ) bill, was filed by Cebuano Reps. Raul del Mar, Antonio Cuenco, Eduardo Gullas, Pablo Garcia, Benhur Salimbangon and Nerissa Soon-Ruiz.
Considered as the flagship project of Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), the CEDZ aims to make Cebu a "self-sustaining, industrial, commercial and investment center that will put in place a wide-reaching employment and investment generation mechanism."
Durano said a major issue related to the CEDZ proposal is the problem on monitoring the influx of goods and commodities into the proposed Cebu free port as this could worsen smuggling in the province.
However, he said this will not be problem because even if Cebu becomes a free port, there is only one major international airport and one major international seaport.
