Keep politics out of Subic, SBMA investors ask GMA

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Reacting to the leadership vacuum in the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), investors here urged President Arroyo yesterday to keep politics out of the freeport.

Last Friday saw the resignation of Francisco Licuanan III as chairman and Alfredo Antonio as administrator of the SBMA.

"We are calling on the President to maintain a clear mind and find the best candidate for the chairmanship and administration of the SBMA," a member of the Subic Chamber of Commerce said.

According to this member, who asked not to be named, the leadership of the SBMA is currently hanging in the air with the resignation of its two top honchos, and is currently a bone of contention between the President and Sen. Richard Gordon.

"We fear that the top positions of the SBMA will be made bargaining chips by the President’s allies in return for their no impeachment vote," the source added.

The source also said that according to the Republic Act 7227, which created the freeport, the posts of SBMA chairman and administrator should be given to the candidate with the best track record in terms of government management and not dangled by the President as a political prize.

Other sources said the simultaneous resignations of the two were caused by the President’s appointment of a former Gordon aide to the post of SBMA administrator.

Pro-administration Sen. Joker Arroyo bared over the weekend that Mrs. Arroyo’s acceptance of Licuanan’s resignation was her way of gathering more allies to help fend off efforts by the opposition to convince at least 79 of the 226 congressmen to endorse the impeachment complaint and elevate it to the Senate for trial.

Local businessmen are not in favor of the President’s appointment of Arman Arreza, one of the SBMA board members.

Arreza earned an industrial engineering degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1993 and took his master’s degree at Wharton School in the United States. He served as one of the early volunteers at Subic and worked as an undersecretary during Gordon’s tenure as tourism chief.

Former SBMA chairman Felicito Payumo, in an exclusive interview with The STAR, said Gordon’s recent moves have two goals.

"Gordon is trying to pressure the President into cornering the top posts in Subic, knowing that she is in a very vulnerable position right now and at the same time, he is trying to divert the issue of his disallowed expenditures," he said.

Payumo added that Gordon should be made to answer for the P854 million in disallowed expenditures he racked up during his term as SBMA chairman. A case against Gordon is currently before the Office of the Ombudsman.

It is not only Payumo and local investors who are apparently fuming over Arreza’s appointment.

Though Zambales Gov. Vicente Magsaysay wrote Mrs. Arroyo last week and supported the call to have Licuanan resign, he was reportedly miffed that she chose a former Gordon aide to fill the post of SBMA administrator. Sources said the Magsaysays are reacting to Mrs. Arroyo’s failure to recognize that they have one vote in the Senate and three in the House of Representatives vis-a-vis Gordon’s single senatorial vote.

Gordon, for his part, said the fight over the resignation of Licuanan could be traced to the keen interest by the Magsaysays in getting a grip of the supervision of the freeport zone.

Gordon told Senate reporters the credentials of Arreza should speak for themselves as he expressed confidence his protégé should know how to get things done at the SBMA.

Kilosbayan representative Demy Tuason said two of the most qualified candidates to head the SBMA are incumbent SBMA director Jesus Vicente "JV" Magsaysay or Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., "because both are known to be successful businessmen and have earned a good reputation as government leaders."

Zambales Gov. Ramon Lacbain II, on the other hand, appealed to the President to appoint "a qualified Zambaleño" as the new SBMA chairman.

He said appointing a Zambaleño is "the logical sequence" since Gordon, the first SBMA chairman, is from Olongapo City while Payumo is from Bataan province.

"Considering that the areas comprising the Subic Bay Freeport Zone covers not only Olongapo City and Bataan but also Zambales, it is now the time for someone from Zambales to prove his capabilities in managing the SBMA," Lacbain said.

Meanwhile, the Duty Free Philippines Employees’ Association said in a statement that with reported Gordon "protégés" Arreza at the SBMA and Michael Kho as general manager of DFP, "it is clear that a grand conspiracy is in the making towards making SBMA and DFP a fat milking cow to the disadvantage of the government." — With Ding Cervantes, Christina Mendez