The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO) is requesting the Marcos administration to release at least P3 billion of the remaining P8.6-billion capitalization to enable the realization of all its projects in the northern economic zone.

APECO president and chief executive officer, Atty. Gil Taway, on Friday, said the Department of Budget and Management, since 2007, has only downloaded P1.4 billion to APECO, and about P8.6 billion has not yet been transmitted which he said is imperative to push through with the various development projects for the 12,743-hectare APECO property in Casiguran.

Taway revealed that when he took over, he inherited nearly P800 million abandoned projects from the previous APECO administration, in which the utilized budget was obtained from the P1.4 billion given to APECO.

Measly budget allocation

The APECO chief revealed that some of the abandoned projects are now being rolled out with “a very measly budget allocation from their coffers.”

“Under the law, the capitalization given to APECO is P10 billion. Right now, only P1.4 billion has been received from the National Government. They are expecting us to deliver with that kind of capitalization, so how can we do that?”

“Unlike the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), which has already exhausted its capitalization,” Taway told reporters in an interview in Makati City.

He clarified that they are not requesting the whole P8.6 billion to be downloaded but just a fraction of it, or from P2 to P3 billion, to be released starting in 2027.

Game-changer

“For the 18 years of our existence, we have only received P1.4 billion. Nabawasan pa nung mga abandoned projects. But we cannot complain. However, if the budget is given under my watch, then it will be a game-changer for APECO. We will spend that judiciously, or what we call transformational governance that we have been doing since I assumed,” Taway said.

He said APECO, under his watch, practices four pillars, namely accountability, transparency inclusivity and ethical behavior.

To prove this, Taway was banking on the recent Commission on Audit (CoA) commendation, stating that APECO displayed “a shift from past inaction” and a foundation for more consistent progress, following the completion of some of its long-delayed infrastructure projects, as highlighted in CoA’s 2024 Audit Observation Memorandum.

It stated that the investment promotion agency’s (IPAs) infrastructure push is a key step toward making the ecozone investment-ready, subsequently completing three projects, including the initial phase of the Sewage Treatment Plant, the Fire Station, and the Central Water Supply and Reservoir Project.

Continuous rise in allocation

Taway maintained that he believes that their request will be granted by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as since he started as president and CEO, their budget allocation from the general appropriations act has been tremendously increasing.

“From the petty P47 million given to APECO since 2018, it peaked to P200 million when I arrived. Although it remains small, we cannot complain; therefore, I told my team to prove to the government and Congress that we deserve to have a bigger budget, or exhaust the remaining P8.6 billion. How? Let’s show them that our projects are generating profits,” according to Taway.