Isang mapagpala at mapagpalayang umaga sa inyong lahat!

Malaking pasasalamat sa AyalaLand Logistics Holdings sa inyong pag-imbita sa akin para kayo ay ma-meet ko at makita naman ang development dito sa bayan ng Padre Garcia. First time na nakarating ako dito.

Maraming salamat din kay Governor Mandanas na palagi kong nakakausap dahil nagkikita rin kami ‘pag ako ay bumibisita sa iba’t-ibang lugar dito sa Batangas. Ang huli kong bisita dito ay kasama si Pangulong Marcos para sa isang Kadiwa, sa Sto. Tomas ‘yung pinuntahan namin.

Your investments here Ayala Land Holdings including, particularly this Batangas Technopark, align very closely with the Department of Trade and Industry’s economic development strategies. They check the following boxes in our list of strategic actions, iisa-isahin ko lang:

Number 1: To develop the regions through more investments outside urban centers.

Your technoparks in Laguna, Cavite, Laguindingan, and Pampanga help spur economic growth in those parts of the country. Your ALogis warehouses and ready-built facilities. provide locators with an immediate space to start their business operations. Given your already strong presence in Luzon, and in some places in Mindanao, we would welcome ALogis’s plans to further expand in the Visayas and Mindanao in the coming months and years.

Number 2: To shift from consumption-driven to investment-led economic growth for our country.

These technoparks are investment destinations with dynamic industrial communities, and many are host to light and medium non-polluting enterprises from both local and global industries. These industries are engaged in manufacturing, automotive, electronics, assembly, and logistics, among others, which are on DTI’s priority list of industrial clusters.

Many of your projects are qualified for incentives under the CREATE Act and I’m glad that you’re dealing with our Board of Investments to support your investments in various industries.

Number 3: To generate more green, tech-infused, and high-paying jobs.

The technoparks, warehouses, cold storage facilities, and other BOI- and PEZA- registered projects of the Ayala Group of Companies generated and continue to generate employment for thousands of Filipinos. Indeed, your group of companies is a big help in realizing our government’s dream of shared prosperity for all Filipinos.

Number 4: To upsize micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Technoparks help create and nurture entrepreneurial economic ecosystems that include MSMEs, the backbone of our economy. 99.5% of enterprises in the Philippines are MSMEs. Your locators can source raw materials and other supplies from small businesses operating in the technopark’s surrounding areas.

That is why at this point, I’d ask the leadership of the local government and residents of Padre Garcia town and other municipalities around here for preparing the people here and the small industries here for the opportunities that will open as your town becomes a gateway to foreign markets, including those in Japan, Taiwan, and our neighboring ASEAN countries, among others.

And last but not least…

Number 5: To ensure food and nutrition security for all Filipinos.

Responding to the rising demand for temperature-controlled facilities, this project and the other projects that I hope will come out from ALogis like ALogis Artico will bring cold- storage facilities that will make fishermen’s catch and farmers’ produce—including eggs, poultry, pork, and beef will be available. This facility will be available to our producer so that consumers can enjoy available food supply for longer period of time.

We hope that, as a result of the country’s agro-industrial sector, will flourish, thereby ensuring a stable food supply. Hopefully, this will, in turn, lower food prices and make food more accessible and more affordable to our fellow Filipinos.

In closing, let me repeat what President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has said on several occasions: The Philippines is now open for business and we welcome locators here that will find these technoparks to be viable and very supportive place for their businesses.

We continue to create an enabling environment for domestic and foreign investments. Thank you to the investors and locators present here today. I’ve heard that there are already 3 signed up among the locators and investors. You are our partners for our country’s economic recovery and resurgence.

Together let us make innovative, competitive, and sustainable investments happen in the Philippines. But first of all, happened here in the Batangas technopark of Padre Garcia.

Maraming salamat at mabuhay tayong lahat! ♦

Date of release: 12 April 2023

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