by Prix D Banzon

Davao City (20 October) -- Officers of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) who came in business suit declared in a press conference on Thursday (October 19) of their disaffiliation with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)

DCCCII chair Atty Bienvenido Cariaga said their disaffiliation took them four straight days of five hours meeting before coming up with the decision.

He said they went through so much soul-searching and deliberations in coming up with their official stand.

Doing such, he said the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) renounces its candidacy for the best chamber of the country for 2006 that would have qualified it for the Hall of Fame, having won the same award in 2003 and 2005.

In a press statement DCCCII which has been voted as the best chamber in the Asia Pacific Region in 2005 and one of the best chamber in the world in the same year has come to such decision for the following reasons: a) without consulting and against the protests of the affected chambers in Mindanao, the PCCI unilaterally implemented a reconfiguration and reduction of the eight Mindanao chamber regions to 5; and b) PCCI insisted on holding special elections for PCCI Mindanao Regional Governors last October 16, 2006 under the new reconfiguration of five regions.

PCCI's refusal to listen to the clamor and protests of the greater number of Mindanao chambers is symptomatic of the neglect that Mindanao has historically suffered.

The statement further said that the reconfiguration of regions was done not only without consultation or due process, but it also totally ignored the history of Mindanao, and was insensitive to cultural sensitiveness.

"We pleaded for consultation, we pleaded for the chance to have a say on how chamber matters in Mindanao should be decided. All our pleas fell on deaf ears," the DCCCII statement further said.