Taguig City – Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito B. Plaza has guaranteed economic zones comply in its requirement to locate away from disaster-prone areas as she affirms that ecozones in CALABARZON did not acquire damages to its structures and to its operations from the recent Taal volcano eruption since Sunday.
“We assure that PEZA will be more precautious in requiring ecozone development and masterplanning to avoid hazards and danger-prone areas. We must be strict in the enforcement of the geohazard laws and the environmental clearance certificate compliance by the ecozone developers, factories, utilities and facilities construction applicants,” stated Plaza. “We want to see to it that ecozones are far from hazards.”
The comments come amid the threats of another eruption of Taal volcano since its recent eruption on 12 January 2020, which may affect more regions in the Philippines including NCR and Region IV-A.
Plaza cited the Lima Technology Center and the First Philippine Industrial Park, both located in Batangas, reported no damage, or major disruption to operations and structures aside from the ashfall.
“Moreover, PEZA management and concerned zone managers in Luzon are coordinating accordingly with locator companies about the condition of affected workers who reside in affected areas of the Taal volcanic activities,” said Plaza.
According to March 2019 data, PEZA has registered a total of 60 economic zones in Region IV, of which, 59 are privately developed and one, the Cavite Economic Zone, is government owned and developed. While PEZA manages ecozones nationwide, CALABARZON region has the most number of ecozones and locators in the country.
Specifically, as of January to September 2019, Region IV-A has a total of 1,962 locator companies, which employ a total of 523, 898 workers. This means that CALABARZON has 43.81% of the total locators of PEZA nationwide and 33.36% of the total employment generated by PEZA. CALABARZON also comprise 50.97% of the total exports generated by PEZA registered-companies and industries.
Meanwhile, the private ecozones in Region IV comprise a total of 3,921.1175 hectares composed of different types of ecozones. Manufacturing companies comprise 62.5%, IT Center comprise 19.64%, IT parks comprise 8.93%, Tourism comprise 3.57%, and Medical Tourism comprise 1.79%.
Plans ahead
Plaza explained that “PEZA is focusing on preparation for the management of the consequences of natural or man- made calamities.”
In this view, PEZA is launching the program about the “Affiliation of PEZA Employees, Ecozones and Industries as Military Reservist Unit and the Disaster Resilience and Emergency Management (DREAM)”. Under such program, PEZAns and industry workers are prepared to be disaster and emergenc responders who help ensure safety during natural or man-made disasters and who help secure lives and the ecozones.
In addition, Plaza said that “locators now have to craft their business continuity plans that should outline how they plan to do business in the face of the volcano’s ongoing activity.” Moreover, PEZA will also require and coordinate with locators to have their “Emergency Response Plans”.
Plaza announced that “PEZA will establish its own ‘Incident Command System and Center’ where ecozones, industries, workers and other stakeholders will get their information and direction in times of natural or man-made disasters and emergencies.” A new requirement will be imposed to application of ecozone development that clearance from geohazards will be undertaken as part of feasibility studies of the location of proposed ecozones.
Environmental, safety compliance
Plaza assured investors that business sentiment in the Southern Tagalog region will remain positive on developers’ compliance to government requirements for calamity safety, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
“One of the requisites for proclamation of an economic zone is the ECC that is issued by the Environmental Management Bureau of DENR. Before DENR issues such ECC, the EMB requires environmental impact statement for the land development,” Plaza said.
Likewise, PEZA is also doing its own plans to ensure the safety of all of its ecozones. One of which is the ecozone, urban, and metropolitan development and master planning of all its ecozones starting with the public zones in Mactan, Cavite, Baguio, and Angeles, Pampanga. #