Reconsider new fee, BCDA tells SBMA

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The top official of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said the state-run Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) should reconsider its plans to impose a controversial fee because it might trigger an exodus of locators in this free port and worsen its financial woes.

BCDA Chair Felicito Payumo said the SBMA, which is planning to impose the Common Use Service Area (Cusa) fee, should get all business locators involved in the discussion on how  to address problems faced by the agency.

“Providing an investor-friendly environment should be [the priority in the free port]. This is done through working with locators,” Payumo said.

The Cusa fee intends to recover SBMA’s expenditures for municipal services such as street cleaning, street lighting, fire fighting and law enforcement inside the free port.

Under the scheme, locators would be charged 2 percent of the appraised value of their leased land, or 20 percent of their monthly lease rental, whichever is higher. Free port residents would be charged P1,200 monthly, which would also cover garbage fees that the SBMA has been collecting.

But the free port’s business community protested the Cusa fee collection and warned they would file charges against the SBMA to prevent its implementation.

SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia earlier said only a court order would prevent the SBMA from enforcing the fee.

“The SBMA’s Cusa fee will affect only the direct lessees, meaning those who have direct lease agreements with the SBMA. But of course, they can pass it on to their sub-lessees,” he said.

Garcia said objections from locators had forced the SBMA to modify the fee structure.

Payumo, a former SBMA chair, said policies that impose draconian measures, like the Cusa fee, might force locators to leave the Subic free port and “make it difficult to attract new ones to replace them.”

Asked if BCDA would intervene in the conflict on behalf of locators, Payumo said: “Although BCDA has oversight capacity, we cannot interfere with decisions made by the SBMA management.”

He said he was confident that Garcia and the SBMA board could address the problem. Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon