Director General’s Corner

DG’S PROFILE

The Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority is the embodiment of beauty and brains. She has degrees to her name from renowned universities, and to mention all of them might take the whole morning. 

Plaza is also a Commissioned Officer in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) – Reserve Force, holding the rank Brigadier General. From 1989 – 1998 and then from 2012-2015, she was Wing Commander for the 3rd Ready Air Reserve Wing Mindanao and the 7th Air Force Wing Reserve, respectively. She was both the youngest commissioned lieutenant colonel and the youngest colonel in the AFP Reserve Force. Plaza was also the first female general in the AFP Reserve Force, the first female general in Philippine Air Force, and the first female general from Mindanao.

She was elected as congresswoman of the 1st District of Agusan del Norte in 1987, making her the youngest Congress Representative in the Philippine History. During her term, she has made major amendments to the Balikbayan Program & the Tourism Infrastructure Bill. 

She also authored the bill creating the Caraga Region as the 13th Administrative Region in the Philippines. With that, she earned the name, The Mother of Caraga Region. 

Most notably, she co-authored the Republic Act 7916, or the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995, creating the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. 

After leaving Congress, Plaza served as consultant to the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Department of Transportation. Following her appointment as PEZA Director –General last September 2016, Plaza told The Philippine STAR newspaper, “I am fortunate to be one of the authors of the law that finally created PEZA, which included areas of Butuan City and Agusan del Norte as among those identified special economic zones. I proposed to the president in our talk… to make ecozones as the umbrella program for economic development. We will build agricultural economic zones, industrial ecozones, tourism economic zones and defense industrial complex.”

As the Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, she initiated major policy reforms particularly in revolutionizing the Philippine Economic Zone Authority to meet the dynamic demands of the business environment and to support the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's economic agenda. 

A woman of action. A woman of motherly compassion. She is the Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Brigadier General Charito Booc Plaza MNSA, PHD.