President Bongbong Marcos is fully supportive of the creation of the Bulacan Airport City Special Economic Zone and Freeport despite his decision to veto a bill pushed by his sister, Senator Imee Marcos.
In a statement issued July 3, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said Marcos wanted to cure what he considered were defects in House Bill 7575, specifically a provision exempting the Bulacan ecozone from review by the Commission on Audit.
Knives out and it’s just Day One! Bongbong trashes Imee’s pet bill creating Bulacan airport ecozone
“Had the President not vetoed the HB 7575, it would have lapsed into law on July 4 or 30 days after the bill was sent by the legislature to Malacanang,” said Cruz-Angeles.
Aside from lack of COA audit provisions, Cruz-Angeles said HB 7575 did not lay down procedures for the expropriation of lands awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries and a master plan for the specific metes and bounds of the economic zone.
“Without these amendments indicated in the veto explanation, the law may be vulnerable to constitutional challenge. The delegation of rule-making power on environmental laws which is unique to the special economic zone is of particular concern,” Cruz-Angeles said.
Imee remained optimistic that Malacanang and the Senate would be able to iron out the issues that led to the veto of the Bulacan ecozone bill. “Trabaho lang, walang personalan at walang kapatiran,” said Imee in response to his brother’s veto of her pet bill.
Cruz-Angeles said the construction of the P740 billion international airport in Bulacan would push through as the San Miguel Corp. franchise obtained by ultra bilyonaryo Ramon S. Ang was approved by both the Senate and House of Representatives in October 2021.
Cruz-Angeles noted the bill failed to provide procedures for the expropriation of lands awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries. It also granted “blanket powers” to the economic zone authority to handle technical airport operations, which would violate aeronautical laws.
Ang is planning to build a 2,500-hectare property in Bulacan into an aerotropolis featuring a world-class gateway capable of handling 100 million passengers annually, plus an adjacent urban and industrial hub.