DOF now backs legislation for Bulacan ecozone

The Department of Finance (DOF) is now supporting the creation of the Bulacan Special Economic Zone and Freeport (BuZ) next to the new airport being built by San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto told Manila Bulletin that he sees no drawbacks in Senate Bill No. 2572, aiming to set up BuZ, adjacent to the New Manila International Airport in Bulakan, Bulacan.

“I am in favor,” Recto said. “I don’t see any downside except more opportunities for our people and economy.”

The Senate has passed the SB-2572 on its third and final reading, which is expected to be adopted by the House of Representatives.

Recto said that the BuZ, the largest ecozone in the country, will unlock the value of currently idle land, resulting in increased tax revenues.

“It will be creating value for thousands of hectares. There’s nothing there and no taxes will be lost,” the finance chief explained.

“It’s a private domestic investor building a four run way airport and ecozone worth roughly P700 billion in Bulacan,” he added.

In July 2022, President Marcos vetoed a similar bill due to concerns about significant fiscal risks to the government.

However, Senator Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs and is the bill’s sponsor, said that the concerns raised by the executive had been adequately addressed in the revised legislation.

To recall, former Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said that the vetoed Bulacan airport ecozone posed significant fiscal risks to the government.

Diokno had explained that if the legislation establishing the Bulacan Airport City Special Economic Zone and Freeport were to pass, the government would be required to offer “very generous fiscal incentives.”

DOF earlier projected that the San Miguel-led ecozone could result in government leakages of at least P60 billion. — Chino S. Leyco