Mazda Philippines has ended the production of the current-generation Mazda3 at Ford Group Philippines' Santa Rosa, Laguna, and plant in preparation for the local launch of the second-generation model later 2012.

The problem, however, is that the new Mazda3 won't be assembled in the Philippines anymore. This was revealed by Anika Salceda-Wycoco, Ford Group Philippines' assistant vice president for communications, who added that more information on the new Mazda3-including where the Philippine market model will be sourced from-will be made available "closer to launch."

Despite the cessation of the first-generation Mazda3's production at the Santa Rosa plant, the facility will still continue to churn out the current-generation Ford Focus and Escape for the local market.

However, this means the Philippines no longer has a car manufacturer and assembler that export its products outside of the country, a role which Ford Group Philippines once fulfilled.

"Our manufacturing operations will continue in 2012 with the current Focus and Escape," clarified Salceda-Wycoco. "With the shift in production of the all-new Focus to Thailand later 2012, we continue to study new product program opportunities for the Philippines as part of our regional growth plan."

With the second-generation Mazda3 now being produced in Thailand and with the production of the third-generation Ford Focus scheduled to begin in the same country later 2012, it certainly looks like that's where we'll be getting these cars from.

Let's hope that Ford can still find a way to make use of the Santa Rosa plant for employment's sake. Perhaps it can be used to assemble the next-generation Escape or even the production version of the EcoSport.