Panga gets endorsement as next PEZA chief

MANILA, Philippines — Various industry groups have endorsed current Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) officer-in-charge Tereso Panga as the agency’s next director general.

In separate letters addressed to President Marcos, various industry and ecozone groups have endorsed Panga to be the next director general of the PEZA.

Among these groups are the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), Philippine Ecozone Associations, the Semiconductors and Electronics in the Philippines, Foundation, Inc., the Cavite Export Zone Investors Association and the Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufacturers.

“He has been a figure of stability and a source of assurance for IT-BPM registered Business enterprises, especially as the sector navigated work-from-home or hybrid work. Even  before his appointment as OIC, Panga has always gone above and beyond for the industry, always accessible and ready with a listening ear and sound advice that’s grounded in his institutional knowledge of PEZA policies and a deep understanding of the IT-BPM sector’s needs that will ensure sustained job creation and retention,” IBPAP president and CEO Jack Madrid said.

Madrid said they are confident that the PEZA, under the leadership of Panga, would again play an important role in crafting forward-thinking strategies that would help attract more investors in the IT-BPM sector.

“Additionally, we believe Panga will enable PEZA to deliver its mandate of stimulating countryside development through the establishment of more IT Parks in new growth areas outside the metropolis as ready locations for IT-BPM companies,” Madrid said.

SEIPI president Danilo Lachica also endorsed Panga. “We at SEIPI firmly believe that Panga will be an asset in your economic team and in your aim to industrialize the country and in support of DTI’s science, technology and innovation-driven industrialization strategy,” he said.

Similarly, PHILEA president Francisco Zaldarriaga said they believe Panga would be a vital cog in the administration’s economic team and in its aim to industrialize the country full speed ahead.

Meanwhile, in a statement, PEZA Employees’ Association president Grethel Tan said they fully support and pray for the official appointment of Panga as director general of the PEZA.

“It is under the dynamic leadership of OIC Panga that the authority has come into its best shape. In just a short term, OIC Panga has already instituted reforms in PEZA that were all highly favored by the locators, developers, stakeholders, and PEZA employees,” Tan said.

Panga’s tenure in PEZA spans over 24 years, occupying various positions in the PEZA organization initially as a planning office to division chief of policy and planning, to zone manager of the Batangas ecozones, zone administrator of Baguio City Economic and Cavite Economic Zone, and to his concurrent position as deputy director general for Policy and Planning, which he held since 2010. He assumed the role of OIC of PEZA in July 2022.