Enablers more than regulators

CLARK FREEPORT – In a recent survey conducted by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and PwC Philippines, 83 percent of respondent chief executive officers (CEOs) among its members reported that their respective companies have recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. More or less, the same optimistic sentiments are being shared among the CEOs of locators at the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City, Pampanga.

This was according to Agnes Devanadera, president and CEO of Clark Development Corp. (CDC) in her State of the Clark Freeport Address last Monday at the Nayon sa Clark. It was exactly a year ago that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. named Devanadera to the CDC. From day one of her assumption into office, Devanadera committed to transform the Clark Freeport into a preferred business and tourism destination in the Asia Pacific region.

When she came in last year, there were only 1,096 locators at Clark Freeport. Devanadera admitted it was a daunting task. It was at a time the Philippines was just getting out of the severe economic slowdown due to the border controls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of Clark Freeport locators were among those seriously impaired and were shut down during the pandemic.

Devanadera took over from retired Police Gen. Manuel “Manny” Gaerlan as CDC president and CEO. Gaerlan literally learned first hand how to sell the Philippines to investors while he was the junior police aide-de-camp of the late President Fidel Ramos. Gaerlan started implementing the transformation of Clark Freeport as a “Smart City” that Devanadera is now continuing, full steam ahead.

In her first week in office at the CDC, Devanadera fondly recalled another ex-presidential aide-de-camp who was then an Air Force lieutenant – Christopher Magdangal was the first to pay a courtesy call to her. Since retirement from the military service, Magdangal has been working at the Alpha Aviation Group where he is chief operating officer.

Alpha Aviation is a flying school for commercial pilots equipped with the most modern simulators in Asia. It is among the 1,137 locators based at Clark Freeport as of July this year.

Magdangal figured prominently when he brought his disgruntled classmate, then Navy officer Antonio Trillanes, to talk with former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at Malacañang after launching a coup d’ etat against her administration.

Magdangal is currently the chairman of the biggest organization, the Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA). With 260 members, the CILA accounts for 90 to 95 percent of employment and exports at the Clark Freeport, according to Magdangal. Devanadera was profuse with gratitude and acknowledge that this collaboration and cooperation extended to her by CILA helped in achieving the common goals of economic growth and inclusive prosperity for all.

A year after, Devanadera reported with obvious pride that the CDC has been able to help their locators survive the economic impact of the pandemic and their numbers are growing again. Through internal streamlining, one-stop-shop processing of permits and other measures to ease doing business at the Clark Freeport, she cited, the CDC got graded at 91.26 by the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations.

A lawyer by profession, Devanadera has been spearheading in behalf of the CDC locators their urgent appeals to the 19th Congress to revisit the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, or the CREATE Law. Intended to attract greater investments, more jobs and economic growth for the Philippines, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda principally authored the CREATE Law at the House of Representatives during the previous Congress.

The questioned IRR allegedly went over and beyond the letter and spirit of Republic Act (RA) 11534, or “An Act Reforming the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives System, Amending for this purpose Sections 20, 22, 27, 28, 29, 34, 40, 57,109, 116, 204 and 290 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, As Amended, and Creating Therein New Title XIII, And For Other Purposes.”

Called the CREATE Law for short, it was signed by former president Rodrigo Duterte on March 26, 2021.

To sustain the business recovery at the Clark Freeport under the supervision of the CDC, Devanadera vowed to make the locators more competitive, especially in reducing the cost of electricity in their operations inside the Clark Freeport. According to her, the CDC fully supports locators to shift to “energy mix” of solar power and putting up of “green buildings.” In the long-term, Devanadera wants to see the Clark Freeport “not to be dependent on the grid” for its power supply needs. She, however, conceded it will require an amendment of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) laws.

She is fully aware of such limitation. After all, Devanadera once served a full term as the ERC chairperson until the end of the Duterte administration. The 73-year-old Devanadera is no stranger to public service. She served for three years as the country’s first woman Solicitor General during the Arroyo administration from March 2007 to January 2010. For a brief while, she served as the last justice secretary of Mrs. Arroyo.

Armed with her legal background, Devanadera disclosed the CDC Board suspended all applications for Philippine Online Gaming Operations (POGO) at Clark Freeport. That is, “until such time the legal framework” is clarified by the PAGCOR, she added.

Being former mayor of the town of Sampaloc in Quezon province from 1988 until 1998, Devanadera likewise announced her plans to further expand the business and economic activities of “Metro Clark” around the surrounding local government units (LGUs) in Mabalacat, Porac, Capas, Angeles City and the provincial governments of Pampanga and Tarlac.

In behalf of the men and women of CDC, Devanadera promised to continue reaching out as “enablers and not just as regulators” to all the Clark Freeport locators to accomplish their goals together.