JOSEPH ARANETA GAMBOA l May 10, 2023 l Business Mirror
SEJONG, South Korea–Around 120 kilometers to the south of Seoul, this smart city in the country’s central region was founded in 2007 as the new national capital of South Korea. Created from scratch, it has been patterned after the master-planned capitals of Canberra in Australia, Brasilia in Brazil and Putrajaya in Malaysia.
To date, 12 of the 17 Cabinet-level government ministries have relocated to the de facto administrative capital of the South Korean republic. Sejong is also the home of Korea Development Institute, the nation’s leading think tank. Yet it has not helped in the decongestion of Seoul Metropolitan Area, whose 26 million people comprise half of South Korea’s entire population of 51.7 million. In fact, most of the country’s economic activities are still centered in Greater Seoul that includes the city of Incheon and the province of Gyeonggi in the northwestern part of South Korea.
Last week, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held its Board of Governors’ 56th Annual Meeting in Incheon, which hosts the country’s main international airport and seaport. More than 5,000 delegates attended the four-day conference at Songdo Convensia with the theme of “Rebounding Asia: Recover, Reconnect and Reform.” The participants included finance ministers, central bank governors and CEOs of regional banking institutions, with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as the keynote speaker.
During the opening session, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa launched the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IFCAP), the first ADB financing vehicle to serve as a one-stop shop for climate finance. Also a global first in terms of scale and scope, IFCAP will multiply ADB’s lending capacity through leverage and it can unlock funds up to $15 billion for new climate projects.
Sejong’s designation as the planned new capital hit a snag when the Constitutional Court ruled that Seoul must remain as the national capital as well as retain the office sites of the President, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court. It was only in 2012 when the Sejong Special Self-Governing City was established by combining all of Yeongi County, three townships of Gongju City and one township of Cheongwon County.
For an analogy closer to home, the creation of Quezon City as the Philippines’s national capital was dealt a setback when then President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. issued a presidential decree in 1976 reverting the national-capital status to the City of Manila, while the whole of Metro Manila was declared as the seat of the national government.
Recently, the Philippine Supreme Court decided with finality that jurisdiction over the Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation—where the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) complex is located—belongs to the City of Taguig due to its superior legal rights and historic title. The judgment also covers several barangays in the City of Makati that were previously known as the Enlisted Men’s Barrios or EMBOs.
Although the City of Makati has filed a second motion for reconsideration to elevate the case to the Supreme Court en banc, the final decision of the High Court’s third division stated that “no further pleadings, motions, letters, or other communications shall be entertained” as it ordered the immediate issuance of an entry of judgment.
The end of this three-decades-long land dispute between the two local government units marks the beginning of a new chapter for Taguig and its people. Over the past decade, Taguigeños have seen the progressive transformation of their city into a rising central business district after the Philippine Stock Exchange and many top corporations transferred their headquarters to BGC.
In a way, Taguig is not the only winner in this territorial contest. With both parties placing their trust in the legal system, it is the rule of law that has prevailed—similar to what happened here in Sejong a decade ago when the local authorities opted to respect the South Korean Constitutional Court’s decision to retain Seoul as the national capital.
*** Joseph Gamboa is the vice-chairman of the Finex Ethics Committee and director of Noble Asia Industrial Corp. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions and the BusinessMirror. #FinexPhils www.finex.org.ph