By: Ric Sapnu
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT— The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) recently released a total of P147 million of revenue shares to eight local government units (LGUs) adjacent to the freeport.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the revenue shares were given to help finance development projects on health, education, peace and order, and livelihood programs.
The funds will allow contiguous communities cope up with developments inside the Subic Bay Freeport and Special Economic Zone.
Based on SBMA records, Olongapo City received the highest revenue share of P34.35 million; followed by the municipality of Subic, Zambales with P22.46 million; and Dinalupihan, Bataan, with P18.32 million.
The other municipalities in Zambales that received the revenue share were Castillejos, with P13.69 million; San Marcelino, P17.66 million; and San Antonio, P12.65 million.
Morong and Hermosa towns in Bataan received P12.79 million and P15.31 million, respectively.
Mayors Rolen Paulino of Olongapo, Jay Khonghun of Subic, Jose Angelo Dominguez of Castillejos, Elvis Soria of San Marcelino, Estela Antipolo of San Antonio, and Joseph Inton of Hermosa receive their shares from Eisma.
Eisma said the P147.22 million distributed last week represented LGU shares for the second half of 2017.
The amount was 6.96 percent lower than the P150.46 distributed for the same period last year.
“SBMA is continuously working on every possible means to attract more investors to create more jobs and increase the LGU shares,” Eisma said during the turnover at the SBMA head office last Friday.
She urged the LGUs to help the SBMA develop estates in their respective areas and to start planning for the extension of the Freeport’s fenced-in areas because the SBMA is already running out of space to meet the space requirement of new and bigger investors.
“If we could no longer accept new investors, the LGU shares from SBMA would not improve further, and, worse, could even diminish,” she noted.
“We have to find ways to extend the Freeport area, so that we could grow and develop more businesses and create more livelihood opportunities for local residents,” she added.
Locators and investors operating within the Subic Bay Freeport remit to the SBMA a percentage of their gross income.
Of the five percent gross revenue, three percent goes to the national treasury, while two percent is distributed by the SBMA among the eight neighboring LGUs.
The LGU share is computed based on population, 50 percent; land area, 25 percent, and equal sharing, 25 percent.
Source: SunStar Pampanga