Written and edited by Palanca awardee Butch Dalisay, the book will come out in hardbound, paperback and digital forms.
“I chose (Butch) Dalisay because he is a well noted writer, author and lecturer,” Congressman Garcia told local reporters here in a press briefing last Thursday.
Dalisay just finished his final interview for his much-awaited book last week. Anybody can read it, we will also upload it in our website, Garcia added.
During Garcia’s first term in the Philippine Congress, from 1987 to 1992, he became widely known for vigorously and successfully fighting to keep the petrochemical industry in the Province of Bataan.
Arguing that the transfer of the petrochemical plant to Batangas was unfair to Bataan and to the Philippines as a whole, he fought against the plant’s transfer all the way to the Supreme Court in a landmark case.
On August 24, 1990, to emphasize his belief in the truth and importance of what he was fighting for, Garcia took an emphatic leave of absence from the House of Representatives and vowed to resign if the petrochemical plant’s transfer was not stopped.
Garcia had filed a petition beforehand asking the Supreme Court to stop the transfer of the Petrochemical plant to Batangas. On November 9, 1990, the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued its final decision on Garcia’s petition, G.R. No. 92024 and ruled that the Philippines’ Board of Investments had indeed erred in approving the transfer of Luzon Petrochemical Corporation from Bataan to Batangas, and that the Board of Investments also erred in approving the change in feedstock from naptha only to “naphtha and/or liquefied petroleum gas;”.
The Court ordered that the original certificate of registration of Bataan Petrochemical Plant, stating that it operates in Limay, Bataan, be maintained.
The Court furthered agreed with Garcia that the intended transfer of the Petrochemical Plant from Bataan to Batangas was disadvantageous to the national government and to the province of Bataan on several grounds.
Garcia victoriously returned to the House of Representatives after the Supreme Court issued its decision, and triumphantly proclaimed that the Supreme Court ruling vindicated his monumental “fight for justice
