Speech of Senate President Franklin M. Drilon
Iloilo Business Forum
Hotel Intercontinental, Makati
March 12, 2014

 A DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY, OUR NATION’S STORY

Thank you very much Dr. Alfonso Uy, chairman of the Iloilo Economic Development Foundation, for your very kind introduction. Let me greet formally our Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, our governor, Arthur Defensor Sr., the president of the Iloilo Economic Development Foundation – our energetic former Secretary of the Department of Tourism, and responsible for all of these – former Secretary Narzalina Lim.

We greet the Vice Chairman of the ILED, Rex Drilon III, and our congressman from the 2nd district, Rep. Arcadio Goricetta, and as well as Rep. Jess Manalo. The Deputy Mission Director of the USAID, Reed Aeschliman, members of the diplomatic corps, our municipal mayors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, a very pleasant morning to you all.

Let me welcome you all in this Iloilo Business Forum. It is a great honor and privilege to speak before eminent personalities in business and finance. By your presence at this forum, you have shown interest in the development of Iloilo, giving us confidence that we can achieve our development goals.

Iloilo is known for many things: the beautiful century-old churches, heritage structures, abundant seafood, sumptuous cuisine and colorful festivals. It had its fair share of glory days. However, with the passing of time, it slowly lost its economic luster. The title, “Queen City of the South”, was transferred to Cebu more than a hundred years ago.

Iloilo’s decline came to a point where its seaport was once described as the “armpit” of the Visayas. Its airport was known for being dirty, disorderly and inefficient. The roads were of low quality, poorly maintained and fraught with potholes.

Moreover, the expensive electricity and the long and frequent brownouts discouraged the growth of commerce. It was not a big surprise that Iloilo failed to ride the crest of the booming BPO industry. Investors bypassed Iloilo despite the abundance of highly skilled and talented human resources.

Lamentably, while other cities in the country were developing fast, Iloilo was on the road to obscurity and mediocrity because of poor infrastructure. In a coffee table book, it was even compared to a woman abandoned by her lover in the Ilonggo kundiman, “Ay, ay Kalisud.”

However, even if Iloilo’s economic appeal diminished immensely, the dream of transforming Iloilo into a premiere investor and tourist destination remains in the heart of each and every Ilonggo.

We do not want our beautiful Iloilo to deteriorate and be reduced to a shadow of its former self with the passage of time. We do not want development opportunities to continue to pass us by. We want to see a marked improvement in the quality of life of our people. We want to transform Iloilo into a world-class destination.

When President Aquino assumed the presidency in 2010, we dreamt once again of recapturing Iloilo’s premier position as the “Queen City of the South”. President Aquino supported that dream.

With a united political leadership, and in partnership with the private sector under the umbrella of the Iloilo Economic Development Foundation, we are now poised to make that dream a reality.

Ladies and gentlemen. Let me share with you the significant steps we have been taking to realize our dream of transforming Iloilo into a world-class destination.

It is easy to identify our strengths: our strategic location; our vast pool of talent; our abundant natural resources; and, a growing consumer market.

Our development strategy is simple: pursue the twin goals of reducing poverty and achieving high and sustained economic growth. To reduce poverty, we have to provide our people with opportunities for gainful employment. We can only do that if we can create an environment conducive to investment. More investments mean more jobs. More jobs mean less poverty.

To attract investments, we embarked on a massive public infrastructure development.

Iloilo is the gateway to Panay Island. But the very sad state of the Iloilo Airport easily dampened the spirit of every potential tourist or investor. Since a person’s impression of a place is more often shaped by the state of the airport, we set our sights on having an airport that conforms to international standards. Hence, we worked hard on the construction and funding from JICA of the 6.5 billion peso Iloilo International Airport.

The Iloilo International Airport now caters to domestic and international flights to and from Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, and several domestic destinations- Cagayan de Oro, General Santos City, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, Cebu and Davao. Modesty aside, Iloilo airport has the best facilities outside Manila.

And we are not yet through. The Department of Transportation and Communication has committed that this year, we will have P500 million pesos for the expansion of the Iloilo Airport.

We are also improving the ports and wharfs in Iloilo. Plans are underway for the expansion and upgrading of the Dumangas Port. The Philippine Ports Authority has initially allotted P180 million for its improvement, and will draw up a master plan for the development of the Iloilo and Dumangas ports. If private sector is interested, I will support the privatization of these ports.

We are rehabilitating the Iloilo Fishing Port Complex, and have a brand new double A abattoir.

Roads and bridges are being widened, upgraded and lighted. By June of this year, we will complete a four lane, 14 kilometer, 1.7 billion peso Iloilo circumferential road, which will not only relieve Iloilo of its traffic, but more importantly, will open hundreds of hectares of new areas for development.

Moreover, the Senator Benigno Aquino Avenue, which is the main gateway to the city, is being widened into a tree–lined, 10–lane avenue, complete with a red-tiled bicycle and pedestrian lanes. It has been transformed from an avenue lined with squatters, to a commercial strip dotted with new hotels and commercial establishments. Other projects in the drawing board are the expanded 4-lane 150 kilometer Iloilo-Capiz-Aklan highway.

The pursuit of economic success is balanced by our concern for the environment. One of the major projects that we have undertaken, of which I take personal pride, is the rehabilitation of the Iloilo River.

The 15 kilometer Iloilo River had been deteriorating over the years because of pollution, sedimentation, depletion of mangrove areas, illegal settlers, and proliferation of manmade constrictions, among others.

I initiated its clean-up and redevelopment. It was dredged. It is now navigable. We removed derelicts, sunken and idle vessels, as well as the illegal fishpens, fishponds and dikes, which blocked the river flow for decades.

We relocated the informal settlers who were living on the banks of the Iloilo River, and are now settling them in the 1,000 units of low-cost housing we constructed. We restored the river to its original boundaries, based on a 1930 cadastral survey, and demolished many illegal structures that caused the slow death of the Iloilo River.

Today, the river is no longer a community toilet, but a place where people can fish. What was once dismissed as dead river is now the venue of an annual dragon boat race.

The successful rehabilitation of the Iloilo River was the result of a combination of factors: sheer political will, support from the private sector and the cooperation of the people.

Along the Iloilo River, we built the Esplanade, a 1.2 kilometer recreational park designed by world renowned landscape architect, Paulo Alcazaren. The Esplanade has become a tourist attraction an exercise area, and an entertainment destination with classy cafes and restaurants. Roxas Boulevard looks pitiful when you visit our Esplanade.

To restore the soul of the city, there has been intense campaign to bring back historical and heritage sites, parks and plazas to their old glory.

We are currently building a state of the art and iconic Iloilo Convention Center, which can seat 3,500 people. This one billion peso project is designed to position Iloilo as a prime convention destination in the Visayas. We are bidding to host ministerial meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) next year.

Let me at this point acknowledge and express the gratitude of the Iloilo people for Megaworld’s Chairman Andrew Tan for donating 1.7 hectare of prime property at Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park where the ICC is now being constructed. At today’s prices, Mr. Tan’s donation is worth half a billion peso.

Another project, which I have been working hard for, is the P11.2 billion Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project. This project will be a game changer for the economic development of Iloilo. Once completed, it will provide year-round irrigation to approximately 32,000 hectares of farm land and benefit more than 783,000 farmers in 25 of Iloilo's 42 municipalities. It will provide 17,000 jobs while under construction, which will start in 10 months. It will more than double Iloilo’s rice production, from 142,000 to 300,000 metric tons annually. This will boost the income of our farmers. It will create an 800 hectare reservoir, which will be a magnet for tourism. Moreover, it will produce 6.6 MW of electricity, and initially deliver daily up to 86,000 cubic meters of good quality potable water.

I worked on the construction and funding of this dam on the encouragement of the Dr. Alfonso Uy, chairman of the Iloilo Economic Development Foundation. Thank you Alfonso, for showing us the way.

Iloilo is flood-free. Since the 5 billion-peso flood control system was put in place, floods are no longer a threat to the city and its surrounding municipalities.

On a different note, Iloilo is one of the ICT hotspots in the country, and was cited for its highly affordable cost of business, availability of basic infrastructure like fiber optic technology, its robust economy, rapid urbanization, stable political climate, and strategic geographical location.

Fortunately for Iloilo, the private sector has been very supportive of our development initiatives. The successful resolution of the power crises was led by the private sector. We now have a stable power supply.

Last Friday, I was a guest at the launching of a 150MW power plant of Global Power of the Metrobank Group, which when completed will be in addition to Global Power's existing installed capacity of 164MW coal plant and 85MW diesel plant, both in Iloilo City. This 150MW plant is a 15.6 billion peso new investment in Iloilo. Thank you to Metro Group Chairman, Dr. George Ty, for your confidence in Iloilo.

And let me acknowledge the presence of Mr. Francis Sebastian, president of the company responsible for the construction of this power plant.

Mr. Walter Brown’s Palm Power in Concepcion, Iloilo will add another 135MW to the grid when completed. That’s over 500 megawatts of total in-land committed power supply by 2017, enough for Iloilo in the next fifteen years.

Two important projects spearheaded by the private sector will enhance the competitiveness of Iloilo. The Ayala Iloilo Techno Hub, and Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park, are major investment areas that cater to the service sector.

Also ongoing are real estate development projects in various stages of completion by Ayala Group, SM, Gaisano and Double Dragon, among others.

Recently, Iloilo was declared second most competitive city in the Philippines outside of Metro Manila and number one in governance by the National Competitiveness Council.

In the 2013 SWS Survey of Enterprises on Corruption, Iloilo managers posted a satisfaction rating of 83 percent, the second highest, in terms of the city government’s efforts to promote a good business climate. Likewise, of the seven (7) areas outside of NCR that were surveyed, Iloilo businessmen are the most positive at 86 percent calling their business prospects either good or excellent, ahead of Angeles City, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu and Davao.

Today, doing business in Iloilo is many times easier, cheaper and corruption-free.

Yes, we have accomplished so much in the last three years.

But the development of Iloilo remains a work in progress.

It is not yet time for us to pat our backs and say, "look, how far we have gone." Rather, it is, "look, how far do we have to go?"

We will not stop pursuing our development goals because we want to show to the whole country that if it can be done in Iloilo, it can be done anywhere.

In Iloilo, we have proven that we can create change when we put our collective interest before individual interest. In Iloilo, we are nurturing big dreams and are working hard to realize these dreams.

The story of Iloilo is not just the story of the Ilonggos. It is the story of Filipinos. This is the story of people who are determined to scale new heights of economic and social success.

I believe that the development lessons of Iloilo can be applied in other parts of the country.

I believe that our nation can go far. With abundant natural resources and enormously intelligent, talented and skilled human resources.

We can rise above our present circumstances.

The time has come for the Philippines to rise, spread its wings and soar to pinnacles of economic success. After decades of being labeled as the “sick man of Asia”, our country is now one of the best performing economies in the region, second only to China in terms of growth.

In 2013, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose to 7.2 percent, which is much higher than the 6.8 percent posted in 2012. Were it not for the various disasters that affected our country, the economic figures could be higher.

The impressive economic performance, the investment grade status, and the overwhelming confidence of the international community in our economy are attributed to the Aquino administration’s relentless efforts to improve the quality of governance.

If the international community and financial institutions have high hopes for our country based on our recent economic performance and our government’s sincerity to address corruption, there is no reason why we, Filipinos, cannot be as enthusiastic and positive of our country’s economic future. We only have to change the way we think and do things. If we want to break from the clutches of poverty, we should welcome reforms, no matter how difficult and unpopular they may be.

When I was a young boy in Iloilo, I already wanted to help my birth place regain its former glory. Back then, I was also dreaming of one day seeing the Philippines in the club of democratic and wealthy nations in the world. Now, after having served the government in different capacities for almost twenty five years, I still have lofty dreams and high hopes for our country.

I know that in each and every Filipino, there is a longing to make a difference. There is an innate capacity to rise to the challenges of the times. And there is a profound love for our country. With these factors, I believe that we can make our beloved nation great once more.

Yes, we can make it happen in our lifetime. We only have to work as one, for no one but us, Filipinos, can build a strong and prosperous nation.

My dear friends, in whatever official capacity I will find myself in the future, I will continue to work for and hold on to that dream of breathing and living in a prosperous, politically stable and democratically robust and strong Philippines.

Let us all do our share so that in the future, when we all retire and see a Filipino nation more productive and a country more prosperous, we can all say that if we achieve our dreams, it is because we all did our share.

With that let me thank all of you for being present this morning, and we look forward to working with you for the greater glory of our country. Thank you very much.