CHANGING LIVES FROM BEPZ TO FAB: THE IMPACT OF EPZ TO THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL LIFE OF THE INHABITANTS OF MARIVELES BATAAN

Abstract

The Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ) plays an important role in the industrialization of the country as cited in many existing studies. This article, moreover, is an assessment of the impact of the Export Processing Zone not on the national economy but particularly on the local community of Mariveles in the province of Bataan in the Philippines. The article is a historical description with a view of sharing the synoptic picture of changes related to the socio-cultural and economic life of the inhabitants of the town of Mariveles Bataan as brought about by the development of the export-processing zone and the Freeport area. The methodology used in this research is qualitative approach supplemented by a descriptive statistics derived from primary and secondary sources of information. Finally, the article disputes the argument of some critics that there is no gain in the establishment of the EPZ because the government and foreign loans heavily fund it. The Bataan Export Processing Zone is successful with reference to the attainment of its main objective of increasing domestic employment. The socio-economic benefits resulted from the establishment of the economic zone and the provisions of the infrastructure external to the zone proper have positive spillover on the local community and eventually on the national economy.