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Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Subic

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Before anything else, I apologize to the editors and publisher of this paper, for having written in my Monday article something that turned out to be “fake news.”  This was about the alleged “Nikki Haley” statements on the president.

I was rushing the article while in the Taoyuan airport where I was to board a flight to Manila.  Earlier, I received through the mail the report about the supposed statements of the US ambassador to the United Nations.

I texted the sender if this was verified, and after about half an hour, he replied that it was already printed in the column of journalist Yen Makabenta of the Manila Times.  I know Mr. Makabenta by reputation and concluded that the Haley statement must be real. 

I was already writing about other issues, principally the war of words between Haley’s boss and the North Korean boy-king, but thought I could weave in the very interesting comments of Ms. Haley about our president.

Turns out we were “faked”, “na-kuryente” in by now passé writer’s patois, fed with “fake news” that has become a by-product of social media dominance.

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Whoever those trolls were, and I do not care to know who they are, you got us buying your fool’s gold.

Again, my apologies.

* * *

We motored to Subic last Monday where we held the MECO board meeting in the brand new ACEA resort hotel owned by the family of one of our directors very close to the Triboa Bay developments made by President FVR in time for the Apec Leaders’ Summit in 1995.

As I haven’t visited Subic in a long time, I was impressed at how this industrial cum tourism enclave which was a reuse of an American naval base, has been able to preserve the surrounding forests despite more than two decades of industrial and commercial “invasion.”

The last time I went through the winding roads carved between hilly terrain and the sea was in the late nineties during SBMA administrator Tong Payumo’s stewardship.  It has basically remained the same but for the fact that the then utilized airport has now become deserted.  No FEDEX, which has moved its hub to China after a few years in Subic, and no other airlines touch the runway but for an occasional flight school light plane.  Sayang.

But it seems the harbor is now well-utilized, and the number of shipping lines docking at Subic has increased from two to nine, giving locators better terms due to stiff competition among the carriers.

As is our wont when we hold board meetings outside congested NCR, we spent a few hours meeting with Taiwanese locators.  This we did likewise in the Mactan export processing zone, as in Clark.

The Subic locators said that they are by and large happy they put up their operations in this former US naval base, although they had concerns about the present “chaos” in the management of SBMA.  This delayed permit issuances especially for new investors, as well as clearances which caused demurrage costs.

We checked with Malacañang and we were informed that all should be well within the day.  That the differences in management style between Chairman Martin Diño and Administrator Wilma Eisma would be a thing of the past effective yesterday.

The “conflicts” in policy setting and program implementation would be resolved, according to the information we got yesterday, by reverting to the letter and intent of the law creating SBMA, where the appointed administrator would likewise chair the board of directors.

Subic, one of the ideal economic zones in the country due to an excellent bay with a deep harbor and adequate infrastructure mostly left by the withdrawing Americans, would now find management “peace.”

The locators of course pointed to high power costs and water services as disincentives, although they are happy with the labor situation.  Filipino employees are both skilled and productive, although there were other concerns that MECO intends to bring up to the agencies concerned, as a way of assisting Taiwanese investors and eventually promoting greater foreign investments.

The Taiwanese in Subic even gave very good suggestions on how we could maximize the utilization of our Subic-Clark and Bataan corridor, and even promote more tourist arrivals to the country.

* * *

This Thursday and Friday, there will be a Taiwan-Philippines Industrial Collaboration Summit to be held at the Manila Peninsula Hotel where top Filipino and Taiwanese business leaders will dialogue on ways and means of promoting  economic relations  and enhance the flow of trade and investments.

Among the prominent Taiwanese industrialists coming to Manila are Chairman Ted Huang of the TECO Group, the leading appliance manufacturing company in Taiwan, Mr. Jimmy Ou, Chairman of Universal Micro-Electronics and Vice-Chair of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturer’s Association (TEEMA), Chairman Rock Hsu of the New Kinpo Group, which is also among the major Taiwanese investors in the country, as well as its CEO, Mr. Simon Shen.

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