EDITORIAL: Curiously Korean

Koreans are beginning to view the Philippines, the Clark Freeport Zone especially, as a viable tourism and investment destination. It seems that our neighbors from South Korea have already outnumbered the Chinese, who, not so long time ago, are one too many in every corner of the country.
Go to the golf courses and you will hear Koreans shouting the “fore” and still many of them you meet at every turn in malls and other social places.
The US$40-million project of the Donggwang Clark Corporation which will rise in Clark within the next 18 months is another testament of the Koreans’ fondness of the Philippines. Is it because of our climate or the ease of doing business they like about us we do not know but we’ll take the investments as welcome development for the country wanting more economic stimulants.
If this DCC will make true its promise, then the building alone and its cutting-edge facilities are enough to attract both tourists and more investors to the Freeport.
Our only inhibition about projects funded by foreigners is that we have less information on the integrity of such firms. Are they well-funded and trustworthy enough to give justice to the time spent with them by our government officials, among them the President of the Philippines?
We have heard of several stories about some foreigners, not only Koreans, who attempt to launder money from their countries to the Philippines by floating that they have legal investments in the country. There are also some who would only have their pictures taken with top officials of the land and have these photos brought back to their countries to fool their governments into awarding them financial grants for their bogus businesses.
We do not mean to downgrade the better judgement of the people who are responsible in bringing the DCC in Clark but we hope that this company would really start operation and deliver all its promised investment for the Freeport and for the rest of the Filipinos.