Senator Imee Marcos said she doesn’t take it personally when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. decided to veto the bill that would have established the Bulacan Airport City Special Economic Zone and Freeport.
“Trabaho lang, walang personalan at walang kapatiran (It’s just work, nothing personal, and no fraternity),” Marcos said when sought to comment about her brother’s first act as the country’s new Chief Executive.
It was Imee Marcos who sponsored the bill in the Senate. According to her, former Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III had prohibited the establishment of any new ecozone since 2016.
Nevertheless, she said the bill could have brought employment opportunities for those who lost jobs and livelihood due to the pandemic especially in the area of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and nearby provinces.
But she said the former Department of Finance (DOF) chief has always been concerned about the government incurring “foregone revenues” should the Bulacan ecozone be passed into law, a position the DOF has repeatedly made known to the Senate during the deliberation on the measure.
Nevertheless, Marcos said, she recognizes the President’s authority to veto any proposed law.
But she said she hopes that the Executive branch and the Senate would thresh out the issue on the ban on new ecozones, which she said was not proscribed when lawmakers deliberated on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law or Republic Act No. 11534.
She further expressed concern that the veto might eventually force foreign investors to think twice about investing in the Philippines.