BAGUIO CITY—The 88 locators within the John Hay Special Economic Zone have employed 5,286 citizens of the BLISTT area as of end-October, John Hay Management Corp. officer-in-charge Zaldy Bello reported Tuesday.
In a report to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, Bello said 91 percent or 4,804 employees in the special economic zone came from the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay area, with the remainder coming from areas outside the region.
Outsourcing firm Convergys led the ecozone’s top 15 employers with 3,000 workers, 2,710 of them from BLISTT. SC Reservation employed 594 workers, followed by Le Chef Inc. (151), Camp John Hay Leisure Inc. (149), Camp John Hay Golf Club (120), Maximum Security and Services Corp.-JHRA (81) and Le Monet Hotel with 78.
Federal Management and Maintenance has 70 employees in the ecozone, followed by Maximum Security and Services-JHSEZ (78), John Hay Management Corp. (67), STBN Manpower Agency (62), Kabadjo Handlers Association (38), Blackbeard Seafood Island (37), and Tree Top Adventure (36).
The remaining locators “employed local workers in their respective establishments and contributed to the increased employment opportunities for qualified residents,” Bello said.
Under a local ordinance, companies operating within Baguio’s jurisdiction must ensure that majority of its workforce comes from the city’s 128 barangays.
Domogan thanked JHMC management and the locators for providing employment opportunities for BLISTT residents, saying the increased economic activities in the city “will surely translate to more employment opportunities for the qualified residents.”
The potential of the special economic zone, however, has not yet been fully maximized, the mayor said.
JHMC, the developer of the former American rest and recreation center, has exploited just a fourth of its developable areas and needs to attract more locators for sustained economic growth in the zone.
When the former American military bases in Baguio, including the Camp John Hay air station, were turned over to the Philippine government, some 247 hectares out of the 686 hectares of the Camp John Hay forest reservation was segregated and subsequently declared as a special economic zone.
