Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque returned to Bataan Thursday (October 1) not to visit dolphins at a water park, but to lobby for the approval of his wife’s plan to build a township inside an economic zone in Mariveles, Politiko has learned.
Sources told Politiko that Roque met with officials of the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) to discuss the proposed P1.8-billion business and leisure township project of First Bataan Mariveles Holdings Corp. (FBMHC), a joint venture between Green Miles Realty Corp. and Biancham Holdings Corp.
Roque’s wife, Mylah, is a managing director of Biancham since 2015. She has been a member of the PAG-IBIG Board of Trustees since September 2017.
FBMHC, meanwhile, counts among its directors Joel Butuyan, Roque’s former partner at the former Roque and Butuyan Law Offices (now Butuyan and Rayel Law Offices).
The little known FBMHC has filed an application for registration with AFAB so its township project, which is nearly twice as big as Bonifacio Global City (BGC), can enjoy tax perks.
The project has been endorsed for the board of directors’ approval by AFAB administrator Emmanuel Pineda. However, the board’s chairman, abogado Pablo Gancayco, is opposed to it.
Roque claimed he was in Bataan to join other government officials for a Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team home visits. He said he was supposed to be joined by National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief Carlito Galvez Jr. but Galvez supposedly cancelled his appearance because of a budget briefing in Congress.
“Since na-arrange na po namin itong press briefing na ito ahead of time, tinuloy na lang po namin pero babalik po kami for the CODE visit,” Roque told a reporter who inquired about his visit in Bataan.
Interestingly, Pineda was with Roque in the virtual press briefing he held for members of the Malacanang Press Corps.
FBMHC plans to build a township on 421 hectares of land in Sitio Aglaloma in Barangay Biaan, Mariveles. The company has already purchased 290 hectares and is negotiating to buy another 131 hectares.
The township will have a yacht club, beach resort, retirement village, industrial park, warehouses, condos, housing, and a hub for business process outsourcing firms and Chinese-owned Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).
FBMHC is bullish on the project’s prospects. It expects to generate P150 million in local and foreign gross revenues in the township’s first year of operations, and P25 billion in its fifth year.
Roque has to flex his muscles to get the project rolling as FBMHC targets construction to start in the first quarter of 2021 and start commercial operations by the third quarter of the same year.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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