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The Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) received generous praises during the senate plenary session on 10 November 2022, as the Agency’s proposed budget for the Fiscal Year 2023 was submitted for approval.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri highlighted AFAB’s exceptional performance by addressing its leadership and employees: “You are doing a great job, you have a lot of locators in a span of a few [number of] years. Keep up the good work. I hope everybody does as well as you there in AFAB.”

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano added, “I do believe that they also deserve a little bit more support, given that they have hanged on, they started it, [they stood as the model] at sila ang naging model.”

Read More: AFAB stays optimistic in driving higher investments in the FAB

Furthermore, Senator Joel Villanueva also recognized AFAB’s productive partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and even noted AFAB’s positive earned media exposure. He also spoke about how such was instrumental to the betterment of the community’s economic status: “We have a great partnership with AFAB. [They were] even featured in so many international news outlets, they are having a great time there in AFAB, the unemployment rate went down drastically, and a lot of products in the public market are being bought by our [people of Bataan] kababayans. We were able to increase their purchasing power.”

In a related article posted last month, the AFAB reported an approximate accumulated total of PhP 935 million in investments approved by its Board as of the time of writing, bringing in the total worth of investments brought in the FAB since 2016 to PHP 130.38 Billion. In terms of employment, FAB enterprises were able to sustain a high number of employment generated with 38,954 FAB workers as of September 2022. Given these data, it is clear that the AFAB was able to sustain both its investment and employment despite the challenges brought by the pandemic.

Read More: FAB sustains employment generation in 2022

The said senate plenary session was attended by AFAB Deputy Administrator for Support Services Ma. Lourdes L. Herrera along with AFAB department managers.

The recorded plenary session was aired via Facebook Live and is viewable through this link: Plenary Session No. 28 | November 10, 2022.