DAVAO (MindaNews/19 October) -- "This is the time for Mindanao to chart its own path,"  said Romeo Serra, chair of the Mindanao Business Council who had just resigned as vice president for Mindanao of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).

Before Davao City bolted, Mindanao had 28 chamber-members in the PCCI.

Already, he said, the board of directors of the Mati Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Davao Oriental has signed a board resolution for their disaffiliation.

“Mindanawon businessmen need equal representation in the PCCI,” he said. “There will be no turning back in this move,”  Serra said as he announced they are moving towards the affiliation of the Mindanao chambers into the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC).

"After all, we had been taking care of ourselves (even while with the PCCI)," Serra said.

The DCCCII’s move prompted Serra and the PCCI governors in Mindanao to resign en masse (see other story).

Serra said PCCI does not represent the interest of the Philippine business community but “only represent the interests of imperial Manila.”

Serra informed the business chambers in Mindanao about PCCI’s move and how he walked out on the PCCI national board meeting earlier this month.

Serra said they managed to keep their responses to PCCI  within the national chamber’s  channels until all their appeals fell on deaf ears on October 16.

Former MinBC chair Antonio Santos said the affiliation of the chambers into MinBC as one group in Mindanao will be good for Mindanawon businessmen.

He said foreign donor institutions and other organizations have been directly working with MinBC, not with PCCI.

Serra said the Visayas arm of PCCI is likely to follow Mindanao's move as they are also under-represented.

"We all did not want to be dictated upon. The business war is on," he said.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte backed the move of the Mindanao chambers.

In his letter to Dee on Thursday afternoon, Duterte asked the PCCI to expedite resolution of the issue.

"We hope that PCCI will be able to resolve this crisis soon because this may significantly impact on the President's development agenda for the Mega Mindanao Region," Duterte said.

"As President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's crisis manager for Regions XI (Southeastern Mindanao) and XII (Southwestern Mindanao), I am bothered by reports that key Mindanao business leaders, especially our brothers and sisters in the ARMM chambers, feel they have no voice in PCCI in charting the economic agenda of Mindanao, "Duterte said.

"In the light of the political and security crises in our country today, it would be very tragic if the business community would also show disunity and instability," he said.(Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)

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