THE Provincial Government of Davao Occidental blacklisted Pionaire Finance Limited, a Hong Kong-based company in operating in the area over deception.
In a press conference last Saturday, October 28, at New Malita gymnasium, lawyer Cesar Europa, the legal counsel of Davao Occidental Governor Claude Bautista told reporters that Governor Claude Bautista decided to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the $24-billion industrial park project in Malita after learning that the firm asked $4,000 to $5,000 as accreditation from would-be contractors.
The MOU was inked on August 2, 2017 but was formally cancelled on October 25. The notice was sent via email to the firm.
"They cannot come to us anymore, they are blacklisted," Europa said.
Land issue
Pionaire Finance Limited executive assistant Maydeeh Libago said last Thursday in a press conference at Marco Polo Hotel Davao was cancelled due to land use issues.
"It is actually the legalities... the land use, the one that was offered to us was actually owned by another, so we cannot use it. The land that they offered is not yet ready for development, we cannot afford delays because we have also our timeline to follow to avoid financial losses," Libago said earlier.
Europa, however, clarified that they are just following legal process of the land conversion of the 2,000-hectare area.
"The reason why we cannot yet develop or utilize the land because part and parcel of creating an industrial park is making sure that the land use classification has already been converted from agricultural to industrial and we are working on that, but we can't do the groundbreaking without the conversion, that would be illegal conversion," Europa said.
Europa clarified that the conversion was already pushed long before Pionaire showed interest in the province.
"We told them that we must follow procedures as the area is agricultural and there is a need to secure the approval of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). So, it's a little strange when they really are pushing for the ground breaking, we can't do that because we are still doing the conversion," he said.
Europa underscored that the proposed industrial park has been pre-qualified by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) but still needs DAR clearance.
"Worse, we did not know they were scheduling a groundbreaking without the knowledge of the Governor," Europa said.
The project, which is dubbed as "Marina and Industrial Park", will be composed of 1,200 megawatt (MW) liquefied natural gas (LNG) combined cycle power plant, chemical industrial park, water-generation manufacturing facility, LPG & Storage Terminal, 20 million metric tons refinery, Petrochemical Complex, and a storage facility together with an associated Terminal and International Port and Cargo Terminal.
She, however, underscored that the project will still be realized in another location in Barangay Maputi, Banaybanay, Davao Oriental.
