PEZA to transform Palawan penal colony into mega ecozone 

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is eyeing to build the country’s first mega economic zone that will be located in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan with a land development of around 26,000 hectares, Director General Tereso Panga said in a report by Philippine News Agency.

Panga said mega ecozones are the trend in Southeast Asia to attract big-ticket investments. 

“We want to see a cluster of industry in an area where the ecosystem can be developed to facilitate the whole supply chain in manufacturing, (a) vertical integration,” the PEZA chief told reporters on the sidelines of the recent PEZA 28th Investors’ Night in Pasay City. 

The mega ecozone will have its own power, water supply and port. 

It will be fit to host the entire supply chain of the electric vehicle industry, Panga said. 

The PEZA is currently in talks with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) as the land development is eyed in Barangay Iwahig, where a penal colony is. 

PEZA and BuCor will also sign a memorandum of agreement within this month for the usage of the latter’s property.

It will be PEZA’s fifth public ecozone after Baguio, Pampanga, Cavite, and Mactan in Cebu. 

“There is no available privately owned land in the Philippines of that scale. Otherwise, you go to the IPs (indigenous peoples) -- big enough to accommodate those big-ticket projects,” he said, explaining why PEZA opted for the mega ecozone to be public-owned. 

Panga did not disclose the cost of developing the mega ecozone as PEZA will still conduct a study for the project.