A resolution creating an Ad Hoc Committee that will prepare for the establishment of a special economic zone in Bacolod City was unanimously passed by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod Wednesday.

The Ad Hoc Committee will be composed of the chairmen of the SP Committees on Communication and Energy, Transportation, Trade and Commerce, Finance and Appropriation, and Ways and Means. Bacolod Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue yesterday said its creation will send a strong signal to the President that the SP is for the establishment of a SEZ in Bacolod based on the full support of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority of the idea.

PEZA offered its full support to the efforts of the SP to make Bacolod a more profitable site for investments by converting the existing Bacolod Airport into a SEZ, in a letter to the SP dated June 12, 2007.

Batapa-Sigue said they have not yet arrived at a consensus on the area for the SEZ because of the ownership issue of the Bacolod airport, which is partly owned by the national government and the Philippine Airlines.

Meanwhile, Batapa-Sigue recalled that in 2005, they had passed an ordinance laying down the procedures for the endorsement by the SP of IT parks and buildings, special economic zones and tourism development zones in Bacolod.

She said that as early as 2005, the SP has clearly identified as one of its policy target the encouragement of the establishment of economic zones through the passage of an ordinance.

That ordinance paved the way for the proclamation of the Office of the president of two IT parks and two IT buildings in Bacolod, she said. These are the Robinson's Place-Bacolod in 2005, the East Block in 2006 and the Bacolod IT Park and the Monfort IT Center this year.*CGS

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