PEZA eyes establishment of defense-oriented ecozones

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) eyes a partnership with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the establishment of defense industrial ecozones.

In a statement PEZA director general Charito Plaza said the agency plans to set up  new types of economic zones including defense industrial complexes to be established in AFP’s military reservation areas which was discussed during a recent meeting with AFP chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr.

She said such ecozones could cater to production of military and defense equipment and weaponry in the country.

Plaza said they would start inviting defense industries whose products are needed by the AFP.

Santos said modernizing the Philippine Armed Forces is a priority as they have been behind in terms of military technology.

“Creating a defense industrial ecozone will not just modernize the country and the defense forces, but will also create jobs and put to use the long been idle military reservation areas,” Plaza said.

Given the country’s strategic location, she said the Philippines could serve as the manufacturing hub of defense and other industries in the region.

For the creation of defense industrial ecozones, she said a memorandum of agreement should be entered into with the AFP to clear up regulatory powers and see implications of such to the national security, once defense-related industries start to come in.

In the same meeting, Plaza shared the agency’s military reservist program which includes Special Basic Citizen Military Training for the PEZA employees and the workers of the PEZA-registered companies operating inside the economic zones.

“PEZA’s unique structure with 404 operating ecozones and 4,478 locator companies, once trained, will provide 1.5 million directly and seven million indirectly employed reservist manpower, as more than enough for the 80 percent reserve component of the AFP,” Plaza, a founding reservist and brigadier general of the AFP Reserve Force, said.

To strengthen its reservist programs, she said PEZA is proposing an administrative order which seeks to institutionalize the participation of all government agencies and the private sector to become AFP reservist units; the budget allocation for education and training, and uniforms; strengthen the role of government agencies and its employees in the event of emergencies and other forms of disasters/calamities; and encourage the active participation of the private sector through allowable tax deductions on the expense for trainings and equipment of their employee reservist units.

Given the recent Taal Volcano eruption which brought ashfall and affected operations of locators in some economic zones, she said the agency plans to put up its own Incident Command System (ISC) and Incident Command Center (ICC) in its new building.

Santos said the AFP would help link PEZA  with the Office of Civil Defense for  trainings in handling disasters, emergencies and incident management and help in setting up its own ICS and ICC, as well as emergency response plans for ecozones and companies.