THE Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is pushing for the passage of a Senate bill amending Republic Act (RA) 7227, or the BCDA Act of 1992, before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to encourage more investments, especially in New Clark City.

BCDA President Joshua Bingcang said on Friday that they are scheduled to attend the second reading of the bill, and they expect interpellation from the senators.

"Being optimistic about it is that this month we can get the bill passed up to third reading," Bingcang said during the One Clark Forum hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines and the BCDA.

"Our target is to have it signed by the President before SONA and that it will be a good pronouncement for Clark as a major investment [hub]," he added.

Senate Bill 2647 seeks to amend RA 7227 and was filed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises, on April 30.

Once signed into law, the measure is seen to give workers access to affordable housing, accelerate infrastructure development, further drive investments in the country and support the pension fund of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

"In order for us to attract more locators or investments, we are pursuing to convert some of the lands in Clark to freehold, especially for residential," said Bingcang.

Under the bill, a certain percentage of the land area of each BCDA economic zone shall be declared as alienable and disposable, authorizing its sale for residential use, mixed-use, industrial and institutional purposes.

According to Bingcang, 25 percent of the revenue raised through sales from disposition of property in Clark will be used for the pension fund of the military. A chunk of the generated funds would also be allocated for the infrastructure projects of the BCDA and its subsidiaries.

The official added that part of the bill was also to extend the corporate life of the BCDA by another 50 years from the current 18 years.

An internal team was already formed to draft the implementing rules and regulation once the bill is passed into law.

"It's clear in our master plan; we already identified the areas for residential [and] it's around 1,000 hectares out of the 13,000 hectares we have for development," said Bingcang, adding that they will develop it into phases.

"For this year, once the bill becomes law, we're targeting at least for the first year of development around 100 hectares to be disposed [of]," he added.

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