MANILA, Philippines – The country?s largest trade union sees more jobs for workers in Mindanao with the planned establishment of boxing champ Manny Pacquiao?s P1.2 billion industrial estate in South Cotabato.
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said the economic zone to be set up by Pacquiao will help promote economic growth and employment for the people of Mindanao.
?Manny opted to put his money in a highly productive investment ? in building factories ? that help create badly needed new jobs,? TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said.
Herrera said it was noteworthy that a day after Pacquiao?s plan became public, the Social Weather Stations released the results of a survey indicating that hunger is now most severe among families of workers who recently lost their gainful employment.
Manny Pacquiao Heights Development Corp. intends to install a 200-hectare special economic zone as part of a mixed-use project on a 400-hectare company-owned estate in General Santos City (Gensan).
?Manny is actually realizing a plan that has long been pending in Congress,? Herrera said, while noting that bills seeking to establish a state-run ecozone in Gensan have been pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives for several years now.
?An ecozone in Gensan will definitely stimulate growth in a big way throughout Mindanao, and build up the Brunei-Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area,? Herrera said.
Gensan?s critical infrastructures and services have been reinforced over the years, largely to brace the huge potential of the city?s export-oriented tuna fishing and canning industries. The city?s world-class fish port provides boats, modern support facilities, including cold storage, ice plants and contact freezers.
Herrera said Gensan also has an international airport that can handle large aircraft, thus allowing fresh produce to quickly reach lucrative export markets as far as North America and Europe.
A big producer of cattle and hog, and with rich mineral deposits that remain largely untapped, the city is the primary industrial and trading hub of (South Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Saranggani-Gensan (Socsargen).
