Allan Yaphockun, PCCI-Southern Mindanao governor, said the PCCI is about to form a new chamber but declined to name "the younger businessmen" that they have negotiated with. He hinted only that the Davao City businessmen "belong to the second generation of businessmen in the city".
He described the DCCCI, which bolted the PCCI late last year, as an "Old Boys' Club". The Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) has also disaffiliated with the PCCI.
"We are forming a new group that we can work harmoniously and closely to develop the economic climate of Mindanao," Yaphockun said in a recent interview.
Under PCCI rules, only one chamber per locality shall be recognized by the PCCI.
Estrellita Juliano-Tamano, PCCI vice president for Mindanao, earlier visited Davao City and offered to reconcile the Davao City chamber with the PCCI but to no avail.
(She conveyed the offer only through the Davao City news media and when asked about the offer, then DCCCI President, Bienvenido Cariaga said that “we’ll still look into it”. Romeo Serra, president of the MinBC said he found the statement of Tamano conflicting and rejected the offer – Editor)
The differences between the MinBC and PCCI-Mindanao, which the PCCI established to replace the former group, furthered widened as Tamano announced that the latter would establish an office outside Davao City, the office site of the MinBC, and cited General Santos City as the likely location. Business sources here would indicate that the PCCI-Mindanao office here would be launched in the next few weeks.
"We could not allow the row to affect the development of Mindanao. There are projects for enterprise development waiting to be carried out," Tamano said.
Among these projects are from the pork barrel of Senator Francis Pangilinan that would benefit industries in the field of fruit processing and manufacturing and the marketing of their products.
DCCCI bolted the PCCI after the latter reconfigured Mindanao's regional chambers from eight to five.
The eight chamber regions in Mindanao were Northern Mindanao, Northwestern Mindanao, Western Mindanao-Zamboanga Peninsula, Western Mindanao (Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi), Southwestern Mindanao (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat), Southeastern Mindanao ( Davao region), Central Mindanao, and Caraga (Agusan Provinces and Surigao Provinces)
In the reconfiguration, the following regions — Northern and Northwestern Mindanao, Western (ZamPen) and Western Mindanao (Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi), and Southern and Southeastern Mindanao — were fused.
They retained Central Mindanao and Caraga chamber regions as separate regions.
DCCCI, the best chamber in the Asia Pacific region for 2005, was organized in 1968 while PCCI was formed in 1976. (MindaNews)
