Renewal of CRTE and Imposition of Penalties: Doing Business in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SBFZ)

On 14 May 2015, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) approved Board Resolution No. 15-04-5389 (14 May 2015), otherwise known as the Guidelines for the Automatic Renewal of Registration of Subic Bay Freeport Enterprises. Its salient points are as follows:

"Pursuant to the SBMA’s annual business review of SBF[1] Locators/Enterprises, six (6) months prior to the expiration of CR/CRTE[2], the concerned BID[3] shall conduct a business review to ensure locator’s compliance with the existing policies, rules and regulations xxx” (Section V)

"All recommendations for suspension, revocation and cancellation of CR or CRTE shall be evaluated by the SDABI[4] xxx” (Section VI)

“xxx the SDABI xxx shall ensure that the violating or non-complying SBF Locator/Enterprise has been accorded full due process prior to recommending the same to the Chairman and Administrator xxx” (Section VI)

Related to this, the SBMA on 18 September 2008 approved Board Resolution No. 08-09-2606, on Procedures in the Imposition of Fines and Penalties, the relevant features of which are:  

Conduct of inspection with respondent’s[5] participation

Issuance of Inspection Report

Conduct of Technical Conference

Issuance of Notice of Violation (if respondent does not dispute) or Notice of Non-Resolution (if respondent disputes)

Submission of Position Paper, presentation of evidence

Issuance of Decision by Regulatory Head

Appeal to SBMA Board of Directors

(NB: My partner and I were privileged to examine and dissect the fine points and features of these SBMA resolutions in some actual legal cases.)  

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[1] Subic Bay Freeport

[2] Certificate of Registration/ Certificate of Registration

[3] Business and Investment Department

[4] Senior Deputy Administrator for Business and Investment

[5] Locator/Investor