The Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) held its first-ever State of the Freeport Address (SOFA) delivered by AFAB Chairman and Administrator Emmanuel D. Pineda last 23 October 2018 at the Bataan Convention Center, FAB, Mariveles, Bataan.

In celebration of the 9th year of the passage of Republic Act 9728 (Freeport Area of
Bataan Act of 2009), Chairman Pineda reported the Freeport’s recent accomplishments as well as its future plans and contributions towards the achievement of Ambisyon 2040’s “matatag, maginhawa at panatag na buhay”.

Since Chairman Pineda assumed office in 2016, the Freeport has continuously strived to achieve its vision of being the Freeport of choice in the country and it was able to meet the demands of a highly competitive global investment environment as manifested in its remarkable operational performance.

Increase in Locators

The number of AFAB’s approved and registered locators increased significantly since 2016 – from one hundred forty-six (146) to one hundred sixty-three (163) approved locators as of September 2018. Considering that the AFAB inherited thirty-nine (39) enterprises in 2010, this growth represents a 235.90% overall increase.

Employment Generation

The continuous influx of new and interested locators in the FAB means an increased number of job opportunities for the community. With employment still being the primary mandate of the AFAB, since 2016, it has been setting a new high in total employment yearly. In 2016, 32,364 employees were recorded. The number jumped to 37,975 in 2017 and as of September 2018, a grand total of 40,567 employees comprise the total number of workforce in the Freeport.

Out of the 40,567 employees in the FAB, 35,116 are employees from Bataan and 5,451 employees came from other regions even as far as Visayas and Mindanao.

Regularization Rate

For the past two years, a laudable increase in the regularization rate of the FAB employees has been recorded. From 30% in 2016, jumping to 43.38% in 2017 and to 51.4% or more than half of the total number of FAB workers as of September 2018.

Economic Performance

The AFAB continues to perform strongly and boost its economic performance. The AFAB have recorded a total of 50,528 export transactions since 2016, with total exports amounting to USD 2M since 2016. In contrast, total value of imports amounted to USD 1M since 2016, leading to a positive net trade balance indicating a positive net value or contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Moreover, the AFAB’s ports services functions generated a total port revenue of Php 47M since the start of its operations, offering services in facilitation on arrival of vessels, facilitation on cargo shipments via Seaport, facilitation on 3rd party service providers, and facilitation on departure of vessels. Since 2016, the AFAB have successfully processed 272 port transactions.

Financial Performance

The AFAB has managed to contribute bigger shares to the government than ever before. The dividends paid by the AFAB reached a huge 187.23% increase and tax remittances also grew from P26.2 million to P33.1 million. An increase of 72.95% in the total share to the national government was recorded with P 82 million in 2016 to P 141 million this year.

“We all decided to move forward together as we aim to reach new frontiers and trail blaze an amazing future for the next generations. Two years later, we have succeeded in sustaining this growth and now we continue to expand towards new possibilities,” Chairman Pineda said.

Over 200 guests from different government agencies, investment promotion agencies, FAB registered locators, civic organizations, and academe representatives attended the SOFA.

See more at: http://facebook.com/freeportareaofbataan/videos/666429310420855

AFAB