Inquirer files
MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has designated a community mall in Antipolo City in Rizal province as a special economic zone (ecozone) to help attract investors to the outskirts of the congested National Capital Region.
Proclamation No. 752, signed on Nov. 22, declared Xentromall Antipolo and the parcels of land that it stands on in Barangay Mambugan, Antipolo City, as an information technology (IT) center as recommended by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).
The declaration for the special ecozone will cover the 27,622.18-square-meter (sqm) floor area of Xentromall Antipolo, as well as its 10,898-sqm lot area.
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Second in the city
This will entitle IT companies locating in the mall to various tax and other fiscal incentives, such as income tax-holidays granted to ecozone locators to bring down their operating costs.
It will be the second special ecozone in Antipolo after the SMMS IT Center, which was declared a Peza-accredited IT center by Proclamation No. 567 issued on March 26, 2013.
Xentromall Antipolo is targeting a number of business process outsourcing firms to set up operations in the mall.
It is a three-story community mall along Sumulong Highway that is operated by XRC Resources, which in turn is owned by proprietors Alex and Aida Cruz.
The community complex opened in 2018 and is patterned after strip malls in the United States.
Growth boosters
Other Xentromalls are found in other towns of Rizal such as Morong, Angono, Tanay, Taytay, Binangonan and Montalban.
The creation of the special ecozone in Antipolo is provided under Republic Act No. 7916, or the 1995 Special Economic Zone Act.
The law sought to spur economic growth through the development of special ecozones, which are select areas that are agro-industrial; tourist or recreational; commercial banking, investment and financial centers, or have the potential to be developed into such hubs.
Stand-alone
These special ecozones are usually stand-alone buildings and are different from the regular ecozones or sprawling complexes containing industrial estates, export processing zones, free trade zones, and large tourist or recreational centers.
Examples of these special ecozones are RCBC Plaza on Ayala Avenue and Pacific Star building on Makati Avenue, both in the city of Makati, Market! Market! in Bonifacio Global City, and Riverbanks Center in Marikina City.
As of June 30 this year, Peza has registered 426 ecozones across the country, the majority of them special ecozones.