Zone (CEDZ) bill soon as part of its public information campaign on the proposal.
The primer, an endeavor of the CCCI CEDZ core group led by Geronimo Sta. Ana of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation, summarizes the salient points of CEDZ or House Bill 1319.
It will be released as part of an information dissemination drive and consultations with various stakeholders, including local government units, “in the next few weeks.”
“We are challenged to do more (so that) Cebuanos will come to realize that (the bill) is good, its cause noble, and it will mean good business opportunities (for Cebu),” said CCCI president Edward Gaisano during the chamber’s yearend press briefing two weeks ago.
CEDZ, a CCCI-initiated proposal, seeks to classify the entire Cebu Province as an economic zone (ecozone). It 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.”
Studies
Apart from the primer, the CCCI CEDZ core group is also preparing feasibility studies to back up the proposal with the help of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, an international development cooperation enterprise of German Government.
House committee on economic affairs chairman Rep. Ramon “Red” H. Durano believes that the local business sector’s support would help push for the approval of the bill.
House Bill 1319, filed by all eight Lower House members from Cebu, already passed the House’s economic affairs
committee, as well as the ways and means and appropriations committees.
Durano said the concerned House committees have also evaluated similar proposals for Ilocos Sur, Bataan, Samal Island in Davao and Surigao del Sur.
He said that there are already more than 100 Philippine Economic Zone-accredited zones in the country, excluding legislated economic zones.
Durano, in an interview earlier this month, also said that he is confident the CEDZ bill will pass through the second plenary reading but “it will take time.”
“We may not receive the same (positive) sentiment (as shown by the House of Representatives) in the Senate,” he said.
Durano said the Department of Finance, for one, does not support the bill due to potential revenue losses, especially for local government units. In an economic zone, payment for certain types of taxes, like business tax, would go straight to the National Government.
He also noted the opposition raised by the Bureau of Customs (BOC), particularly against the provision in the bill that seeks to declare all of seaports in Cebu as free ports. The BOC had expressed concern over how to monitor local ports. (NRC)
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