Aurora ecozone takes budget cut

Congress has approved a slash in the budget of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (Apeco) in northern Aurora to P332.5 million from the original P3.565 billion.

Groups opposing the operation of Apeco, which, once fully developed, could be the third largest ecozone in the country, hailed the reduction as their “tactical victory.”

But Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara, author of the law creating the Apeco and a member of the Apeco board, saw the budget cuts in a different way.

“Usually most agencies of government [that] proposed budgets [end up with budgets that are] trimmed by the DBM, which oversees the entire national government budget. [It’s the same situation as the University of the Philippines], which submitted a P16-billion budget but only P5 billion [was] approved,” Angara told the Inquirer by telephone.

While the P332.5 million was not enough for Apeco’s intended task, Angara said the amount could help finance the free port’s operations.

“There is a lot of infrastructure needed unlike in the case of freeports like Subic or Clark where the infrastructure was inherited when the [United States military] left. Here we are building from scratch but we are hopeful that we can attract investments to create jobs for our people in the area,” he said.

Despite the huge budget cuts, the Resist Apeco! Defend Aurora! Movement (Radam) said it would continue lobbying for a zero budget, said Salvador France, vice chair of the national fisherfolk coalition Pamalakaya and convenor of Radam.

“Because of our campaign the Department of Budget and Management was pressured to reduce [the Apeco budget] to less than 10 percent. It is a tactical victory for the people of Casiguran, Aurora, since the huge slash will slow down whatever big undertaking the Angara political dynasty has in mind in 2012,” France said in a statement here on Monday.

Subic and Clark, spanning a combined area of 100,000 hectares, used to be naval and aviation facilities of the United States until 1991 when the Senate voted to close these.

Facing the Pacific Ocean, the 12,000-ha Apeco was designed to be the Philippines’ link to industrialized countries.

Residents of Casiguran had taken their opposition to Congress and the Supreme Court, in a bid to stop Apeco from occupying their farms, fishing grounds and ancestral domain.

France said the combined pork barrels of Angara and his father, Senator Edgardo Angara, amounting to P70 million and P210 million respectively, would not be able to support the development of Apeco.

Of the P332.5-million budget, Apeco advised the DBM that it would use P55 million for personnel services and P277.5 million for construction of buildings and acquisition of lands.  Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon