ALIÑO ASSUMES POST AS SBMA CHIEF
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT: Successful businessman and investor Eduardo Jose Aliño has assumed his post as chairman and administrator of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and was welcomed by officers and employees during the turnover ceremony on Monday, January 22, in front of the SBMA Administration office.
In his first public address as head of the agency, Aliño said that when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. offered him the position in SBMA, he consulted his family first before saying “yes” to the President and the First Lady.
“How can you say no to your President?” he said. “Because if you always refuse to help our leaders, who else would? So, I said yes.”
He said he accepted the challenge to actually give back all the help that the SBMA people had shown him and his business ventures for the past 20 years.
Aliño was the former president and chairman at Subic Bay Freeport Grain Terminal Services Inc. and Mega Equipment International Corp. which is now being managed by one of his sons.
“It is because of you, other than us, that made our terminal to what it is right now. Hindi po namin magagawa ang lahat ng ito kung wala ang tulong ninyo (We won’t be able to reach this success without your help),” he said.
Aliño also heads the S.T.A.R. Group of Companies, and chairs the Subic Bay Yacht Club.
Addressing the employees of SBMA, the new administrator and chairman assured to implement fairness and honesty to serve the people, while asking for their support.
“I promise you that I would be fair. I promise you to be honest,” he said, adding that he has no agenda other than to help and to serve SBMA as gesture of love of country, for God and for the President.
Meanwhile, during his first press conference as chairman and administrator of SBMA, Aliño noted the vast potentials of the freeport which should be given priorities for development.
“We have so many potentials here in Subic and we may be putting more hotels, more infra projects to attract more investor,” he said.
“We will study everything to determine what we are lacking.”
Citing his experience as a locator himself who invested so much money for his businesses, Aliño expressed his desire to give the locators and investors who are now experiencing difficulties a chance to recover and pay their financial obligations to SBMA.
He explained that these businessmen had invested so much money and it would be so painful to lose the business they dreamed of here in Subic.
“Giving them a chance to recover is as if giving them a new life,” he said.
He also congratulated his predecessor Jonathan Tan who was promoted to a higher position in the government as undersecretary in the Department of the Interior and Local Government.