By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Geez, I thought my crowd drawing fruits Sweet Davao Pomelos are the craze of the folks of Pangasinan’s province but many went gaga to my 100 kilos Davao famous Puyat variety Durian, the golden standard of durians in the country, where they have been wiped out from the display area in just four hours.
This after the crew of the lorry from Mindanao disembarked the crates, that contained the King of Fruits, from its three days cruise from its depot in General Santos City to its base in Urdaneta City.
The truck was part of the fleet of ten lorries or big 10- wheeler trucks owned by my M’lang, Cotabato Province town mate Marilyn “Akay” Jordan-Muit where her siblings like Dukduk and Dakdak Jordans helped her and hubby Dodong run their multi-million pesos General Santos Pride Movers (GPM) at the entrepot or bagsakan in the vernacular of the Eastern Pangasinan city.
“Are you at your house Congressman Mon?” I called by phone Pangasinan’s debonair Fifth District Representative Ramon Mon-Mon Guico III after I separated a sack full of his favorite Puyat export brand ripening brown durians from those I have to bring in Dagupan City.
HEAVENLY TASTING DURIAN. Pangasinan Fifth District Representative Ramon "Mon-Mon" who sports with his right hand his favorite Davao export variety Puyat Durian while he holds with his left hand two dragon fruits at the family owned WCC Aeronautical & Technological College in Binalonan, Pangasinan
“I’m at the terminal,” he retorted about his location at the family owned airport terminal of the WCC Aeronautical & Technological College in Binalonan, Pangasinan where before you entered the swanky area you have to pass two security checkpoints that protect the aeronautical school, the houses of the solon and his father Binalonan Mayor Monching Guico.
Despite enmeshed in a meeting with Nueva Vizcaya Congresswoman Luisa Cuaresma at the second floor of the terminal, used to lounge actor Coco Martin during the reelection rally of Senator Grace Poe last May 2019, he descended and asked me his bills for the fruits.
“Baka busy kayo sa itaas with your guests, aalis na ako,” I told the solon while our tête-à-tête commenced already for 10 minutes.
“Okay lang,” he told me as a prelude where he asked me about the political development in Pangasinan.
We exchanged notes about his projects, programs, and especially the employment juggernaut and the province's marvel Sumitomo Wiring Systems Ltd. that will generate 12,000 jobs that will be taken pro rata from the 212 villages in the one city and eight towns congressional district. Geez, that’s 57 new jobs on each of those villages amid the lethal phantom pandemic Corona Virus Disease -19 that gnawed the employment numbers in the country.
I told him that I read somewhere that Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito B. Plaza approved P13.1 billion worth of committed investments for the months of April and May, which are expected to generate nearly 20,000 new jobs in the country.
Plaza, a former congresswoman from Mindanao, approved 26 new projects on May 21, its first meeting since the Luzon-wide lock down begun in middle March this year.
She said 68.5% of investors are foreign, including American, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese.
This brought PEZA-approved investments to a total of P29.6 billion for 113 projects in the first five months of 2020.
****
I told Rep. Guico that PEZA is a saving grace of this sorry country in terms of foreign direct investments ( FDI) versus her Southeast Asian neighbors that attract most of the numbers of investors.
“FDIs declined by 13% yearly from 2006 to 2010 in the Philippines, FDIs in the Special Economic Zones grew by 23% yearly in the same period,” as cited in 2013 by Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) Executive Rosario Manasan.
PEZA oversees 408 economic zones with 4542 locator companies employing 1.6 million workers.
“This SEZ things should be taken cared by the government by protecting the status quos like the tax incentives even amid new proposals to immediately cut corporate income tax and lengthen the sunset period for existing fiscal incentives that our Senators wanted to change,” I once told him.
I asked him if the construction of the edifices of the SEZ in Binalonan was shouldered by government.
“No, not a single cent,” the pilot turned solon quipped.
“Your chutzpah should be emulated by the government rather than perking up the economy through Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-Asa (BP2) Program that will further bleed financially the coffer like building those people’s houses and infrastructures that will host their livelihood,” I said
As with other SEZs in other Asian countries, Philippine SEZs “have costs that outweigh their benefits, according to Manasan.
She cited the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ) where “its costs (consisting primarily of infrastructure development costs) exceeded the benefits (employment and associated wage income of workers in the ecozone, exports and associated foreign exchange earnings, local input purchases by ecozone enterprises, and government revenues).”
In Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO), despite “government investments amounting to P2.9 billion in an airstrip, port improvement, paving and rehabilitation of the Baler-Casiguran Highway, flood control, and other on-site improvements, there were only 10 approved locators as of April 2013 and only three of them have started doing business.” The APECO official website appears to be inactive and is silent on the number of investor-locators.
***
As we conversed at the ground floor of the airport lounge, the beauteous solon’s wife Arlyn Grace Guico descended from the second floor and discussed with the lawmaker about the lunch they were going to treat their guests.
“Dito ka na mag lunch Mortz,”she told me as it was already 11:30 AM.
“Thanks maam but kailangan ko ng umuwi sa Dagupan City kasi set up ko pa ang temporary fruits stand namin where my wife will display the Davao fruits like durians, Davao lakatans, and pomelos infront of McDonald – Tapuac in Dagupan City”.
The couple told me that the best durian they tasted was the Malaysian brand a friend in Pampanga, where the madam came from, gave them.
“Maliit lang siya pero grabe ang lasa,” she stressed.
Popular cultivars in Malaysia, according to Wikipedia, and Singapore (Singapore imports most of its durians from Malaysia, hence the varieties are similar although there may be slight variation in the names) include "D24", which is a popular variety known for its bittersweet taste; "XO", which has a pale colour, thick flesh with a tinge of alcoholic fermentation; "Chook Kiok" (Cantonese meaning: bamboo leg) which has a distinctive yellowish core in the inner stem; and "Musang King" ('musang' is the Malay word for palm civet) which is usually the priciest of all cultivars. Musang King is known for its bright yellow flesh and is like a more potent or enhanced version of the D24.
Enough said!
Who said I could not write the pungent but sweet and addictive tasting durian and PEZA in one Op-Ed column?
Who said I could not be a trader at the same time an economics and political opinion writer, er, food connoisseur te-he at the same time?
Enough said, again!
READ:
M'lang Produces The Tastiest, Sweetest Pomelo
(You can read my selected columns at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
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