Philippine Economic Zone Authority director general Charito Plaza, on Wednesday, had no misgivings to a blind announcement of the President to sack a senior female member of the government for failing to align the agency’s directions to that of the national government’s.
“I don’t feel alluded to by the statement. I’m just doing my job and responsibility to protect the interest of our investors who are in contract with us and to protect the interest of Filipino people,” she said in a briefing Wednesday at the PEZA headquarters in Taguig City.
“If ever I expressed our opinion on the CITIRA (bill), it was because it is my duty and my moral responsibility to speak up. It is our program, our incentives, our clients and this bill has affected exporters who are clients of PEZA. We have the biggest number of industries in our ecozones and the effect of the bill to our clients will be tremendous,” she said.
PEZA has been doing the rounds in informing the public of the worse-case scenario investors are bound to face once the Corporate Income Tax and Incentive Rationalization Act (CITIRA) Bill is passed into law.
She recalled that the agency has had five formal letters to Malacanang seeking audience with President to present their case, all because the Trade and Finance Departments snubbed PEZA during the time when the bill was being drafted and during negotiations following the crafted bill.
“We were never once invited to speak for our side. And the PEZA chairman should be the first person to defend and explain our programs and incentives,” Plaza said.
The agency is now seeking the assistance of Senator Christopher Go to bridge the concerns of the economic zone developers and locators regarding the CITIRA bill.
Even before the tax reform program was crafted, PEZA already noted declining investments since 2016. In 2018, investments to economic zones dropped 40.97 percent to P140.24 billion from P237.57 billion in 2017.
In the first four months of 2019, investments dipped 24.54 percent to P29.5 billion from PP39 billion during the same months in 2018.
“We are expecting more of this type of developments to happen as most expansion programs of companies have been put on hold,” Plaza said.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ecozones Association president Ed Zaldarriaga expressed concern about the rumored expulsion of Plaza from office.
“DG Plaza has been doing a remarkable job trying to improve our country’s investment attractiveness. Taking a position on this CITIRA bill is merely her way of protecting the various investors who have put in so much in this country and generated an aggregate of over 1.5 million direct jobs,” he said.