NO GHOST project but something of a white elephant is the San Fernando Tourism Road designed to link the MacArthur Highway in Barangay Del Rosario to the NLEX Mexico toll plaza.
Broad and cemented, the road has been practically completed for some time now, but its eastern phase crossing Calulut Centro Ave. has remained closed, leading as it is to nowhere with construction stopped right at its planned terminus abutting the perimeter fence of the NLEX Mexico toll plaza area. Look up Google Map, better yet watch that YouTube reel of moto vlogger Froilan Does (stills in this article) and get a so-near-and-yet-so-far miserable vibe at the forlorn site.
That it took the Pampanga Business Circle to call the attention of Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag and the Department of Public Works and Highways over government obliviousness to this all-too-obvious “a strategic traffic decongestion measure that will improve road safety, mobility, and economic flow in the area” speaks of negligence, if not indifference, or worst, ignorance of the magnitude of the road in the overall traffic scheme of the city.
As PBC senior fellow Rene Romero noted in his letter to the mayor and the DPWH-3 director, once completed and properly integrated into the NLEX access system, the connector road would “provide a direct and efficient approach to the expressway, divert a significant volume of vehicles away from overloaded intersections, reduce congestion along the Mexico-Calulut corridor and nearby junctions, and improve overall traffic distribution and travel efficiency.”
The business leader is precisely citing the very reason for the conceptualization and construction of the SF Tourism Road.
It is almost a decade ago – in September 2016 – since local media reported then-Department of Tourism Region 3 director Ronnie Tiotuico announcing that his agency funded with some P1 billion the construction of a “new convergence road” to be facilitated by the DPWH.
Dubbed as Tourism Road Infrastructure Project, Tiotuico said the road would traverse Barangays Del Rosario, Sindalan, and Malpitic, connecting the FVR Megadike Road to the NLEX-Mexico Exit.
Enthused then-Mayor Edwin Santiago: “Aside from the development bringing us more tourists, makakatulong din ito sa panawagan natin na i-decongest ang MacArthur Highway at mabawasan ang traffic sa ating major highways.”
The tourism road, Tiotuico said then, was the third to be funded by the DOT after the Friendship Circumferential Road portion or the “Paning Road’ in Barangay Telabastagan and Pandan Road in Angeles City “which are all intended to attract more tourists to the region.”
Tiotuico furthered that the road was expected to be finished and open for motorists by the end of that year, in time for the Christmas season.
That was, again, in September 2016, and indeed the long stretch from MacArthur Highway to the Calulut-Bulaon Road crossing was subsequently opened to motorists.
Less than two years later – in June 2018 – local media again reported that a total of 220 trees, including molave and African Talisay, and Japanese bushes were planted along that operational stretch of the tourism road in observance of that year’s Philippine Arbor Day.
Not much else was reported about the SF Tourism Road thereafter. But for some bikers and motorcycle riders who can squeeze through the concrete and makeshift barricades at the road’s entry going to NLEX, that portion has largely faded from the public consciousness, jolted recently with the PBC letter.
The window of opportunity for the completion of the SF Tourism Road though opened widest, so to speak, with Mabalacat City’s similarly-situated Atlu-Bola Bypass Road, both being connector roads to the NLEX.
It is to Mayor Geld Aquino’s credit – to his singularity of purpose and determined action, not to mention respectful but persistent engagements with the agencies concerned, DPWH, NLEX, Toll Regulatory Board, and Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr. – that in less than six months the Atlu-Bola Bypass Road materialized from conception to construction, and in two more months to completion.
As with the Atlu-Bola Bypass, so with the SF Tourism Road. Mayor Caluag may very well take a page from Mayor Aquino’s playbook… Uh-oh, guess I just shoved my foot in my mouth there.
How insolent of me to even think of propounding that to the honorable Mayor Vilma Balle Caluag, gloriously hailed as “The Most Influential Filipina Woman in the World” by that most prestigious Foundation for Filipina Women’s Network.
Aye, when her mere kembot on Tiktok will do the trick.
Google Map photograb/Road photos: Froilan Does/Photos: CSFP-CIO, Mabalacat City News
