No other person fits the job but him.
This was according to Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. president Sergio Ortiz Luis Jr. who is backing Philippine Economic Zone Authority OIC-director general Tereso Panga to assume the post permanently.
“The feedback from exporters is that they are happy with his work, and he is very professional. Even SEIPI or the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. is endorsing and supporting him. From what I know, he is deserving for the post because first, he is a career official and people in PEZA are behind him and receive him well,” Ortiz Luis said in an interview.
Having risen from the ranks initially as Planning Officer 4, Panga occupied various positions in PEZA from division chief of policy and planning to manager of the Batangas ecozone, Zone Administrator of Baguio City Economic and Cavite Economic Zone, and in his concurrent position as deputy director general for policy and planning, which he held since 2010.
24-year service
His tenure in PEZA spans over 24 years of professional and dedicated public service.
Panga’s extensive experience will be crucial to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s plan to bring in more creative industries and productivity-enhancing investments in the ecozones.
Also, the PhilExport president revealed that locators at PEZA are also anxious if someone outside PEZA will be installed as the new director general.
“They (locators) said if Panga will be replaced, there will be another adjustment.
And regarding his Ombudsman case, it was obviously politicized. Remember what happened to Greco Belgica of ARTA (Anti-Red Tape Authority), the institution itself had become weak even though it is a formidable agency. Sometimes, these cases are nonsense and make government institutions weak,” he said.
“If they will take somebody in the likes of former PEZA DG Lilia De Lima, it’s fine with me. But if they will get somebody from outside that is not fit and deserving, then that would not help PEZA,” he added.
Panga was also touted by DOJ Secretary Crispin Remulla as having a huge chance of becoming the 3rd PEZA Director General, being a recruit and protégé of De Lima, the first PEZA Director General who made PEZA grow into what it is now.
Other biz groups
Aside from PhilExport, leading ecozone industry organizations such as IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Ecozone Associations, the Cavite Export Zone Investors Association, and the Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufacturers have backed Panga to be the next PEZA DG.
The ecozone industry organizations have shown their confidence in Panga and PEZA, together with the stakeholders, to execute the next strategic and forward-thinking strategies to attract more investors, especially in the digital economy which is poised to achieve two years ahead of the forecasted $20 billion in gross merchandise value this year and increase it to $35 billion by 2025.
IBPAP, which plays a pivotal role in sustaining the growth of the IT-BPM industry that contributed 1.44 million direct jobs and 3.61 million indirect jobs in 2021, with $29.5 billion in revenues representing 7.5 GDP contribution, said they firmly believe that Panga will enable PEZA to deliver its mandate of stimulating countryside development thereby creating a robust economy through the establishment of more IT Parks in new growth areas outside the metropolis as ready location for BPO companies.
For his part SEIPI president Dan La Chica stated that “by appointing the right people to take the helm of the agencies involved in attracting foreign investments, together with policy coherence, and a consistent implementation of the ease of doing business, we can truly improve our foreign direct investment ranking in the ASEAN region.”
Ecozone locators in electronics/semiconductors are the biggest investors and exporters in PEZA, as ecozone manufactured exports account for 80 percent of the total country’s annual commodity exports.
For corporate members of PHILEA, who are responsible for developing fully integrated world-class and environment-friendly ecozones nationwide with a poured-in investment of P1.3 trillion to date, pointed out that “from a humble, unnoticed agency, PEZA grew over the years to become one of the pillars of the country’s economic resilience, and Panga was a key and integral part of that agency transformation.”
It is said that with OIC Panga at the helm, PEZA made a P140.7 billion investment this year, a 103 percent increase over 2021.
This year’s investment pledges exceeded the previous peak of P140.2 billion in 2018, breaking a 4-year downturn.
Moreover, PEZA approved 29 new and expansion ecozones this year with a total capital investment of P96.2 billion, 11 of which were approved during the PBBM administration, which accounted for P90.6 billion in investments.
OIC Panga likewise argued for the National Economic and Development Authority’s inclusion of the ecozone program in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 as a key strategy for accelerating countryside development and economic growth.