The gullible
swallow everything

Only the most gullible believes without question the claims by political leaders who claim for themselves advances in the economy of a place where businessmen may invest their hard-earned money.

That exactly was what happened in the case of the word war between City Mayor Monico Puentevella and Rep. Evelio Leonardia regarding the fall of Bacolod from No. 5 to No. 48 of the recent city and municipality competitiveness index for 2014.

In short, anybody who had seen the letter sent to Puentevella by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) could immediately comprehend that the date being asked covered January to December of 2011, 2013 and 2014.

In short, no investors in his right sense could have mistaken Puentevella as responsible of the slump in the city' competitiveness standing from No. 5 to No. 48.

Thus, one could immediately appreciate the write up on Bacolod as one of the favorite destinations of investors in the country, which Gerold Fernando had posted in the Bookmark the Permalink.

It mentioned Bacolod as one of the favorites – which included Cebu, Davao of Mindanao, Clark Freeport Zone, and Sta. Rosa in Laguna named as the Makati of the South.

1t was described as having been transformed as home to manufacturing facilities of some food and beverage plants. Just 38 kilometers away from Manila, Sta. Rosa has been referred as manufacturing hub in the country.

According to the article, Bacolod has been ranked as the 94 th emerging BPO in the world and top 3 in the Philippines. Bacolod was also called home to several PEZA for parks and centers.

The main attraction of the growing BPO are the benefits offered to the workforce. The BPO industry has created over 12,000 jobs in 2011 which is projected to reach 16,000 in 2016.

It also mentioned about the improved ranking and status of Bacolod being the “Center of Excellence” which is attracting foreign and local investors. Recently, the Dallas-based Everest Group which is currently in the process of searching for its office space location in the Philippines has expressed interest in investigating Bacolod' booming industry for its business expansion.

It also mentioned the SM Group's plan to open a modern hotel.

Ayala Corporation, too , another major Filipino conglomerate has reiterated its interest in Negros Occidental, particularly a 215-hectare development project in Bacolod.

So, if you are an interested investor, whom will you believe? A self-serving attempt to convince you that the solon is the actual brains behind the development or you can determine whether you can have a future in the city and the province of Negros Occidental.

Just asking.*

For the information of readers who claim to be confused by the claims regarding the NCC rankings, we quote this clarification from the NCC. “We collected (for some indicators) the 2010, 2011 and 2013 data although some figures were collected for historical data only. This means they were not used in computing the rankings.”

For the record, Bacolod had already been ranked Number 5 over-all in 2012, and Number 2 in 2010 .- THE EDITORS

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