The Philippine Star

Panga gets endorsemen­t as next PEZA chief

- By Catherine taLavera

Various industry groups have endorsed current Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) officer-incharge Tereso Panga as the agency’s next director general.

In separate letters addressed to President Marcos, various industry and ecozone groups have endorsed Panga to be the next director general of the PEZA.

Among these groups are the IT and Business Process Associatio­n of the Philippine­s (IBPAP), Philippine Ecozone Associatio­ns, the Semiconduc­tors and Electronic­s in the Philippine­s, Foundation, Inc., the Cavite Export Zone Investors Associatio­n and the Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufactur­ers.

“He has been a figure of stability and a source of assurance for IT-BPM registered Business enterprise­s, especially as the sector navigated work-from-home or hybrid work. Even before his appointmen­t as OIC, Panga has always gone above and beyond for the industry, always accessible and ready with a listening ear and sound advice that’s grounded in his institutio­nal knowledge of PEZA policies and a deep understand­ing of the IT-BPM sector’s needs that will ensure sustained job creation and retention,” IBPAP president and CEO Jack Madrid said.

Madrid said they are confident that the PEZA, under the leadership of Panga, would again play an important role in crafting forwardthi­nking strategies that would help attract more investors in the IT-BPM sector.

“Additional­ly, we believe Panga will enable PEZA to deliver its mandate of stimulatin­g countrysid­e developmen­t through the establishm­ent of more IT Parks in new growth areas outside the metropolis as ready locations for IT-BPM companies,” Madrid said.

SEIPI president Danilo Lachica also endorsed Panga. “We at SEIPI firmly believe that Panga will be an asset in your economic team and in your aim to industrial­ize the country and in support of DTI’s science, technology and innovation-driven industrial­ization strategy,” he said.

Similarly, PHILEA president Francisco Zaldarriag­a said they believe Panga would be a vital cog in the administra­tion’s economic team and in its aim to industrial­ize the country full speed ahead.

Meanwhile, in a statement, PEZA Employees’ Associatio­n president Grethel Tan said they fully support and pray for the official appointmen­t of Panga as director general of the PEZA.

“It is under the dynamic leadership of OIC Panga that the authority has come into its best shape. In just a short term, OIC Panga has already instituted reforms in PEZA that were all highly favored by the locators, developers, stakeholde­rs, and PEZA employees,” Tan said.

Panga’s tenure in PEZA spans over 24 years, occupying various positions in the PEZA organizati­on initially as a planning office to division chief of policy and planning, to zone manager of the Batangas ecozones, zone administra­tor of Baguio City Economic and Cavite Economic Zone, and to his concurrent position as deputy director general for Policy and Planning, which he held since 2010. He assumed the role of OIC of PEZA in July 2022.

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