*charmzzz*

A time of misfortune

The month of April this year brings about not only bad news but the worst news. It foretells a story of woe.

The sad news is that Hanjin, the company that was supposed to build a 400 hectare ship-building facility at Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, has withdrawn from the project. Last Saturday, all the Koreans left and brought with them all their equipment loaded on barges and bid goodbye to their mega-project in our province.

And so the 40,000 jobs for welders and carpenters and masons and drivers and crane operators and engineers are all gone.

The reasons for the withdrawal are reportedly complicated and insurmountable. One is that Hanjin allegedly failed to obtain an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC). The problem arose when the Philippine company which worked for the documentation of the Hanjin project failed to forewarn Hanjin of the basic requirement of an ECC, of a social impact study, and of the need to relocate present occupants to acceptable sites for human resettlement.

Another problem arose out of the issue as to the supply of electricity from NAPOCOR and STEAG Coal-fired Power Plant. Hanjin wanted to pay only for electricity it actually consumes but NAPOCOR reportedly wanted to peg a minimum consumption rate. The issue involves millions of peso a year in terms of actual electricity payments. With this thorn in the project, Hanjin decided to withdraw.

A third issue that pushed Hanjin off the cliff was the issue of land ownership. Phividec is only allowed to lease lands to companies which are called locators within the industrial estate. Phividec is not allowed to sell lands to any locator-companies. Thus, Hanjin will be forced to rent forever the lands over which they will be investing billions of dollars in equipment, infrastructure and machinery. On the contrary, the Subic Industrial Estate and the Bataan Export Processing Zone are reportedly allowed to sell lands to Hanjin. That is the reason why Hanjin decided to pull out and just expand their Subic and Bataan existing shipping yards.

The other reason for the Hanjin pull-out is the reported demand of the Senate to summon the President and chairman of the board of Hanjin to appear before the said body and justify Hanjin’s failure to obtain an ECC before commencing their projects. A couple of Senators were said to have insisted on the summons which insulted the culture and the reputation of Hanjin.

When pride becomes the issue, Hanjin took the gentleman’s way out of the problem and decided to withdraw.

And the sore loser in this Hanjin debacle are the people of Mindanao who lost the projected 40,000 jobs and skills-training and the side economic benefit that would have resulted from the Hanjin project.

It is a very sad story of how politics amongst the senators, and the myopic insistence of government regulatory agencies like the DENR and EMB to have only gotten into the required ECC after the Hanjin project has started to be implemented, instead of having assisted Hanjin to comply with the ECC requirements, that has resulted into the Hanjin loss.

The efforts of the local governments of the municipalities of Villanueva, Tagoloan, Jasaan and the entire province of Misamis Oriental headed by Governor Oca Moreno, and the congressmen of the province, and Mayor Tinnex Jaraula and Vice-Mayor Dongkoy Emano to convince President Gloria Arroyo to salvage the Hanjin project would hopefully bring fruit and positive results. But after what Hanjin had gone through, and the sad experience of having been harassed to frustration, is a sad lesson that both Hanjin and the Filipino people should learn from.

The loss of 40,000 projected jobs that Hanjin should have provided is not a small matter. And the disappointment that Hanjin also experienced from the Philippine setting is neither a minor one. However, the biggest loser in all these Hanjin debacle is the Philippine society, in general, and the Misamisnons and Kagayanons and Mindanaoans, in particular.

There is only one remedy to avoid this unfortunate situation and, that is, for the President of the Republic to exercise her moral ascendancy, executive fiat, political influence, and charismatic powers to bring back Hanjin into Mindanao and prevent an economic walk-out that could have caused more severe and dismal effects on our economy in the decades to come.

The Hanjin withdrawal is a nightmare. I hope it will remain to be a sad dream of which, when I wake up in the morning, will go away like the morning mist. For, if it becomes reality, the nightmare will become an economic monster of proportions never ever imagined.

And I also hope that the Hanjin debacle will be the last and the people will learn that there is always a price to pay for all the stupidity that we commit upon ourselves.