Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

274 SESSION IV
ownership was transferred to the local governments for
more productive land use. Rizal Province’s development
site was originally intended for food production for
Metro Manila and is located in mountainous terrain and
having relative difficulty installing basic infrastructure
such as electricity and communication lines.
Legazpi City and Tacloban City opted to purchase
parcels of lands based on the recommendations of their
respective taskforces. About ten years ago, land prices
in their cities were relatively low and those cities were
able to identify possible development sites in strategic
locations with affordable rates. They needed to convert
land classification from agricultural to industrial;
however, conversion was relatively easy since those
lands already lost its value as agricultural land and
that was the primary reason why the land was cheap.
There were only a few residents on and near the sites.
Private companies were willing to extend electricity and
communication lines upon the go signal of the chief
executives.
In Pavia, Guimaras, and Tubay, the identified
development sites were owned by private persons or by
agencies. In Pavia’s case, the site belonged to farmers
and caretakers. Land prices in Pavia rapidly increased
after President Aquino visited the site for a land breaking
ceremony of the Regional Industrial Center in 1989.
Benpres Co., mother company of the Lopez group of
companies, owned the Guimaras site. The initiator
of the project, then Guimaras Governor Lopez was
married to a member of the Lopezes. Tubay’s project
site was owned by JCADI, the initiator of the project.
Jose Panganiban opted to utilize an abandoned
industrial land formerly reclaimed by a mining
company and whose ownership was transferred to the
national government. Cebu City, Leganes, and Nasipit
planned to reclaim a part of their coastline; however,
only Cebu City was able to fulfill the reclamation
project. Cebu was able to secure ODA fund, but now it
is suffering from its responsibility to pay the loan back
while it cannot secure special patents of the reclaimed
area because of a pending dispute with its neighboring
Talisay City. 8 Leganes is still looking for an investor
to reclaim land. Nasipit was only able to reclaim less
than five hectares out of intended thirty has. Nasipit
has had financial problems to complete the reclamation
of the site since it mainly depends on congressmen’s
irregular and unreliable pork barrel funds. There were
several other options such as the BOT scheme, bank
loan, and do-it-local government-itself; however, the
local administration failed to close any deal.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Project Management Styles
Pavia, Tacloban City, Palayan City, Agusan del Norte
Province (for Nasipit and Tubay) created taskforces
composed of representatives of local government, line
agencies and private sectors. Taskforces of Pavia and
Tacloban were created by order of Presidents Aquino
and Ramos to implement the Regional Industrial
Center Program and ceased their activities when the
Estrada administration was installed and shifted its
focus from industrial to agricultural development in
1998. Palayan city’s taskforce was organized by the city
mayor’s initiative; however, the number of taskforce
members increased since the former mayor try to
accommodate as many groups as possible and that
made it hard to get a quorum to meetings. In the case
of Agusan del Norte, newly elected Governor Angelica
Amante decided to review the provincial economic
growth strategy due to the decline of its major industry,
logging. Ecozone projects of Nasipit and Tubay were
included in the provincial long-term development plan
and the governor created a taskforce and designated
the provincial DTI director as chairman. The taskforce
was tasked to complete all necessary paperwork such
as securing land ownership certifications and land
classification conversions, which are the main obstacles
for both cases. The Agusan taskforce is still actively
operating.
Cebu City put up a project management board headed
by the mayor in order to make collective decisions on
the project. Project management office (PMO) was
also created for day-to-day supervision of the project
implementation. The City mayors appointed directors
of the PMO with engineering backgrounds.
The rest opted to manage the preparation of projects by
the office of the local chief executive and the office of
local planning and development with leadership of local
chief executives.
Marketing Styles
Cebu City has its own investment promotion arm, Cebu
Investment Promotion Center, which was established
in 1994 and has been funded by Cebu City and local
private companies. The director of the center is a former
NEDA official who has extensive marketing experiences
in private companies as well. He is also a close ally of
Mayor Osmeña.
Agusan del Norte taskforce created an investment
promotion division in the office of provincial planning
and development, but there is no exclusive staff yet.