THE Senate committee on economic affairs presented to the plenary on Monday the bill strengthening the powers and functions of the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB).
Senate Bill No. 2133 seeks to amend Republic Act No. 9728 or the Freeport Area of Bataan Act of 2009 to clarify and expand the freeport’s territory. The expansion will then create opportunities for more investment in Bataan, committee chair Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian said.
“The area of development is not vast because these are mountainous and rolling areas. Of these remaining areas, only three major parcels of land are zoned to receive industrial-related investments and these are not even contiguous. This is the reason why expanding the FAB territory is sorely needed,” Mr. Gatchalian said in a statement.
The bill extends the Bataan freeport’s territory to include the rest of Mariveles outside the former Bataan Economic Zone and its municipal waters, as well as the alienable and disposable public lands and municipal waters of the expansion areas.
It also allows the AFAB to create the best model business center and one-stop shop for locators. Mr. Gatchalian said the one-stop shop approach was designed to improve ease of doing business and lower bureaucratic burdens of investing and doing business within the freeport.
The roles of the AFAB administrator and chairman were separated as well to balance the additional powers of AFAB and to provide a good governance measure.
The bill also raised the capital stock contributed by the government to the AFAB to P2.5 billion, from the present P2 billion, with an option to increase capitalization upon the discretion of the AFAB.
Mr. Gatchalian noted the Bataan Freeport may be a potential investment destination that will help improve the poverty rate in the area. He said the freeport has created 39,226 jobs as of December 2018.
“This is just a snapshot of the potential of the AFAB… and we would like to replicate its success in other parts of Bataan,” he said. — Camille A. Aguinaldo
