Int’l transshipment port, ecozones eyed in Tawi-Tawi

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) wants to put up an international transshipment port and one economic zone for each of five islands in Tawi-Tawi, the head of the government agency said.

Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza told reporters yesterday that Peza has recently approved the first of these ecozones, which would cover an area of 218.9 hectares.

While not providing any project cost for the development of the economic zone, she said that it was a private ecozone being forwarded by a former governor in the area.

“We already have locators because we will put up an international transshipment port [in Tawi-Tawi] as there are international ships that pass through [those waters] but we are not getting anything even a single peso. We will try to put up one economic zone in each of five islands of Tawi-Tawi,” she said in a mix of Filipino and English.

The island province of Tawi-Tawi is initially under the Regional Economic Zone Authority (Reza), which is Peza’s counterpart agency in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Plaza previously said that the two investment-promotion agencies entered into a memorandum of understanding in December last year allowing Peza the authority over the economic zone programs of Reza.

“We just approved one economic zone in Tawi-Tawi that’s supposed to be under ARMM but the Reza of ARMM would rather that it would be us who would register [the project],” she explained.

She said that the first economic zone would be located in Panglima Sugala in Tawi-Tawi.

The move to set up economic zones in Tawi-Tawi comes amid Peza’s efforts to expand its presence across the country, eyeing the development of more ecozones, including 36 public ecozones, all of which would be owned by the government agency.

Plaza added that they were still considering a 10-year rental fee waiver for companies that would invest in economic zones located in rural areas, although this might strip Peza of one of its revenue sources. —ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL