The Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) disaffiliated from the PCCI effective October 19, claiming the national chamber “unilaterally” reduced the number of regional chambers in Mindanao from eight to five.

Romeo Serra, chair of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) who resigned as PCCI Vice President for Mindanao, told a press conference in Davao City Thursday that the DCCCII’s move to break away from the PCCI “will have a snowballing effect around Mindanao” as they expect 16 other business chambers to disaffiliate.

Dee, however, said 19 Mindanao chambers are with them in the Manila conference.

He denied allegations that the national chamber “unilaterally” reduced the number of regional chambers in Mindanao.He said Serra kept vital information from the public.

Dee said the PCCI amended its bylaws in November 2005 to recognize the regional governors as regular officers of the PCCCI. In May this year, Serra and the rest of the area vice presidents – of Visayas, Luzon and National Capital Region—were told to conduct consultations with all chambers at the local and regional level to come up with a consensus on whether or not they would endorse the incumbent regional governors to serve on holdover capacity until December 2007, to synchronize with the next election of board members.

Dee said Serra was “not able to get the consensus.”

Serra told MindaNews there was consensus in two regions -- in Southeastern Mindanao and Northeastern Mindanao.

But he said he could not expedite the decision of the others because chambers operate independently and he “didn’t want a hao-siao (mock) consultation.”

"I'd rather be faulted that I was late, than do it and other people are left out," he said.

Dee said a committee was created headed by Eric Cruz with the Luzon, Visayas and NCR vice presidents. Dee said the committee spoke with Serra for an hour and got him to list down names of people in Mindanao that the committee should talk to.

Dee explained that when the committee went around Mindanao, it found out that only 28 chambers out of the original 43 in Mindanao were active.

“There was an imbalance. One region had one chamber and one regional governor. Another region had two chambers and one regional governor. Another had three or six chambers and one governor.

Dee said the committee along with the Mindanao chamber people they consulted, started planning out how to have equal representation.

Dee said the reduction from eight to five regional chambers was precisely because of the “imbalance.”

PCCI’s Commission on Elections sent Serra a memorandum on August 7 this year citing alleged complaints from chamber presidents in Mindanao that they were not informed about the memorandum for consultation and that they wanted to hold special elections instead of endorsing the eight incumbent governors to sit on holdover capacity.

According to a summary of events prepared by the PCCI,  the Comelec gave Serra three days from receipt of the letter to submit his written compliance or the Comelec would institute the necessary action including but not limited to the holding of a special elections in Mindanao.

Serra allegedly failed to submit his written compliance but asked for an extension of the consultation period until end of August. The Comelec gave him up to September 4 but  still no compliance from Serra.

The Comelec then recommended to the Board the approval of the conduct of special elections in all regions in Mindanao, through a referendum on or about September 30 this year. The Comelec then sent a notice of special election of regional governors to all regions in Mindanao.

The PCCI held a special board meeting on September 18 to tackle the report of  the Special Committee on Mindanao Concerns. One of the recommendations then was to reclassify the regions in Mindanao from eight to five and to request the Comelec to postpone the special election from September 26 to 28 to October 16, 2006.

On October 19, businessmen in three Mindanao regions elected their new governors. . Two other regions chose their governor today, Dee said.

“There are 19 chambers from Mindanao here now. In fact, the biggest delegation is from Mindanao so how can they (DCCCII and Serra)  say they are a majority,” Dee asked

But Dee acknowledged “we cannot stop them from campaigning.”

Dee also took exception to reports that the PCCI was being “anti-Muslim and anti-minority.”

“That’s completely a distortion,” he said, adding three out of five business chambers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) – Tawi-tawi, Jolo and Marawi – are with them in Manila. (Carolyn O. Arguillas with a report from Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)

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