Monday, January 22, 2007 Efforts to form new biz chamber underway
THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has started organizing a group of young businessmen in Davao City after efforts to woe back its former affiliate, the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII), has failed, PCCI-Southern Mindanao governor Allan Yaphockun said.
He described the DCCCII, which bolted the PCCI late last year, as an "Old Boys' Club."
The Mindanao Business Council has also disaffiliated with the PCCI.
"We are forming a new group that we can work harmoniously and closely to develop the economic climate of Mindanao," Yaphockun said in a recent interview.
He, however, declined to identify the names of the younger businessmen they are negotiating to form the new chamber, which PCCI would recognize.
But Yaphockun said they belong to the second generation of businessmen in Davao City.
Under PCCI rules, Yaphockun said only one chamber per locality shall be recognized by the PCCI.
Estrellita Juliano-Tamano, PCCI vice president for Mindanao, earlier also offered a reconciliatory hand to the Davao City chamber but she was spurned.
In fact, the animosity appears to have widened with Tamano's declaration that PCCI-Mindanao will establish an office outside Davao City, which is in General
Santos City.
"We could not allow the row to affect the development of Mindanao. There are projects for enterprise development waiting to be carried out," Tamano said.
Among these projects are from the pork barrel of Senator Francis Pangilinan that would benefit industries in the field of fruit processing and manufacturing and the marketing of their products.
DCCCII bolted the PCCI after the latter reconfigured Mindanao's regional chambers from eight to five.
The eight chamber regions in Mindanao were 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).
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.
Bienvenido Cariaga, DCCCII president, blasted the PCCI for reconfiguring the regional chambers allegedly without consultation with major Davao business leaders.
DCCCII, the best chamber in the Asia Pacific region for 2005, was organized in 1968 while PCCI was formed in 1976.
