MANILA. – With the filing of House Bill No. 4632 last Thursday by Bohol First District Congressman Rene Lopez Relampagos upon the resumption of session last week by the 15th Congress, a new special economic zpne may soon rise in the municipalities of Loon, Calape, and Tubigon. If approved, the bill will establish a special economic zone in the three towns but will be primarily based with a 400-hectare principal office in the island of Sandingan in Loon. The Loon, Calape, Tubigon Special Economic Zone will be managed and operated by the LCT Special Economic Zone Authority or LCTSEZA, which is also proposed for creation by the bill. Relampagos said the LCTSEZA Bill seeks to create a special economic zone in line with the Aquino administration's programs to distribute economic activity all over the country, not just in centralized, overly industrial areas, for equity and balance in development in the region, and to provide jobs, especially in rural areas which are suitable for attracting legitimate and productive foreign investments.

He added that, through the ecozone, there will be an increase in the productivity and income of Boholanos and concurrently improvement in the level and quality of living conditions. The LCT Ecozone will cover all barangays in the towns of Loon, Calape, and Tubigon, although the specific metes and bounds of the ecozone will be further defined in a presidential proclamation. The bill highlights that with the development of the Cebu-Bohol Economic Basin through the continued entry of foreign investments in Metro Cebu and the placing of Cebu in the world investment map, the direct impact of the spill-over effects of Cebu's development is being felt by the western side of Bohol. It adds that, although most of the incoming investments will be centered in Metro Cebu, the present congestion and limited land area available for expansion in Metro Cebu will eventually lead to the location of new investments in outside areas.

In Cebu's plan, the alternative location is its western seaboard. However, Relampagos notes that the mountain range that divides eastern and western Cebu can be a natural barrier to the flow of investments. Citing the viability of fast crafts cruising between Cebu and Bohol and the cheaper way of transporting bulk cargo by water than by land, the First District congressman said that the most logical place for the location of new investments in Central Visayas is the northwestern side of Bohol. The Boholano solon said that the northwestern part of the province is rich in potential development, in coast-oriented or port related industries, and added that the coastal towns of Loon, Calape, and Tubigon are ideally suited as possible sites for refueling, restocking, and rewatering of vessels; transshipment port for bulk incoming and outgoing, containerized cargo, especially agricultural products; ship repair and refurbishing station; power generation station; and other industrial enterprises. A special economic zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country's typical or national laws. The category SEZ covers a broad range of more specific zone types, including free trade zones, export processing zones, free zones, industrial estates, free ports, and urban enterprise zones.

SEZs are also designed to stimulate the repatriation of Filipino capital by providing attractive climate and incentives for business activity; to promote financial and industrial cooperation between the Philippines and industrialized countries through technology-intensive industries that will modernize the country's industrial sector and improve productivity levels by utilizing new technological and managerial know-how; and to vest the special economic zones on certain areas thereof with the status of a separate customs territory within the framework of the Constitution and the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines. Relampagos emphasized a recent report from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) which forecast that investments in the country's ecozones are expected to grow by 10 percent to P225 billion as more foreign electronics and manufacturing firms are seen to locate in the Philippines. PEZA Director General Lilia B. De Lima announced that their target for 2011 is to grow investments, exports and employment by 10 percent. Investment for 2010 grew by 17 percent to P204 billion from P175 billion in 2009.