DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 October) -- Davao's business chamber has bolted the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) in protest of the latter’s alleged  unilateral decision to reduce the number of Mindanao’s regional chambers, a move that also prompted the PCCI Vice President for Mindanao and all PCCI governors in Mindanao to resign en masse.

The PCCI national board in its September 18 meeting, reduced the number, allegedly  based on a report from a certain Eric Cruz, who earlier led a fact-finding team to Mindanao.

The eight chamber regions in Mindanao are Northern Mindanao, Northwestern Mindanao, Western Mindanao-Zamboanga Peninsula, Western Mindanao (Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi), Southern Mindanao (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat), Southeastern Mindanao (Davao region), Central Mindanao, and Caraga (Agusan Provinces and Surigao Provinces)

Insensitive

In the reconfiguration, the following regions --  Northern and Northwestern Mindanao, Western (ZamPen) and Western Mindanao (Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi), and Southern and Southeastern Mindanao -- were fused. They retained Central Mindanao and Caraga chamber regions as separate regions.

Cariaga, who led a 13-member panel of  present and past senior officials during the press conference, decried PCCI's alleged disregard of due process, insensitivity to cultural differences, and ignorance of  the history of Mindanao.

Romeo Serra, chair of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) and PCCI Vice President for Mindanao who also tendered his resignation, said the new grouping disregarded specific fruits of the existing set-up like a common chamber region for the Moro entrepreneurs.  He said the reconfiguration also affects the representation of the Western Mindanao– Sulu Archipelago chamber region in the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA).

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Chamber of Commerce and Industry decried that the reconfiguration was not just mere bypass of consultation but was "may be construed as being anti-Muslim and anti-Minority by the people in our region.”

Cariaga's letter to the PCCI board on Oct. 5, sent through its president, Donald Dee, said they found the lack of consultation “unacceptable” and that breaking away from the national chamber was “the only honorable path for DCCCII to take."

DCCCII, the best chamber in the Asia Pacific region for 2005, was organized in 1968 while PCCI was formed in 1976.

Illegal

Serra said the PCCI September 18 meeting was illegal. He said he failed to attend that meeting because he attended the Mindanao Information and Communication Technology Summit that day.

But Serra said the Sept. 18 meeting, announced as a mere executive meeting, was allegedly instantly converted into a board meeting.

He said he was outnumbered in a succeeding meeting ratifying the decision. Of PCCI's 26-member board, Serra said, 20 are from Manila and only one -- Serra --  is from Mindanao.

Serra said the move of the governors to resign was carefully deliberated and is expected to upset the PCCI who expected Mindanao businessmen to "submit to them.”

Serra said the resigning PCCI governors are Arsenio Sebastian (Northern Mindanao), Dr. Jainal Hamad (Western Mindanao-Sulu Archipelago), Engr. Bienvenido Badelles (Northwestern Mindanao), Hospicio Suralta, Jr. (Caraga), lawyer Leo Victor Sibala (Southeastern Mindanao), Benjamin Garcia (Southern Mindanao), and Teresita Uy Sebastian (Western Mindanao– Zamboanga peninsula).

Cariaga said that despite their protest, PCCI insisted on holding special elections for PCCI Mindanao regional governors on Oct.16 under the new reconfiguration of five regions.

"PCCI's obdurate refusal to listen to the clamor and protests of the greater number of Mindanao chambers is symptomatic of the neglect that Mindanao has historically suffered," he said.

Cariaga said PCCI ignored their pleas for deferment of the decision.  "We pleaded for consultation, we pleaded for the chance to have a say on how chamber matters in Mindanao should be decided. All fell on deaf ears," he said.

Different frameworks

Sebastian Angliongto, founding chair of the chamber said the Mindanao regions cannot just be easily integrated because they have different frameworks.

He said there is difference between the interests of Southern Mindanao and Southeastern Mindanao where the Davao chamber is. The fused region is now composed of South Cotabato, Sarangani, General Santos, Sultan Kudarat, Davao City, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte.    

DCCCII trustee and former chair John Gaisano said Davao has to take the cudgel for the other chambers to follow. He said they will lose nothing in the move because the chamber did not get anything from PCCI.

Gaisano, who cited "control, politics, and money" as the usual reason behind neglect, said the advantages of bolting are greater than the disadvantages. Forfeiture of a "hall-of-fame" award this year is among the fallbacks cited in the disaffiliation.

The officers said the chamber has its own revenue and PCCI is their beneficiary. They also revealed that they access foreign funding directly, not through PCCI.

Lawyer Domingo Duerme, member of the DCCCII Board of Trustees, said the chamber does not live by the awards it has received.

"We are making the decision out of principle and conviction," Angliongto said.   The group also denied the disaffiliation will have fallbacks against business in Mindanao. “This will give us more focus,” he said.

Cariaga said the announcement should alert other chambers in Mindanao that earlier signified to follow Davao's move. "By now, they know already what to do," he said.

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