CONCEPCION, Tarlac – This bucolic town is now open for business despite lack of support from the national government.
Mayor Andres “Andy” D. Lacson said he has laid down the welcome carpet to big local and foreign businesses and industries to put itself at par with the more progressive urban areas of the province, like Tarlac City. Ironically, this municipality is the hometown of its famous youngest mayor Ninoy Aquino, husband of President Cory C. Aquino and father of President Noynoy C. Aquino III.
Lacson showed the progress made by this town to attract investors with its modern plaza, public market, well paved roads and probably the most modern police station in the country. With these developments, Bounty Farms set up an automated plant to process some 60,000 heads of chicken with its output destined for the overseas markets like Japan and to supply the needs of top local fastfood enterprises.
Lacson, who hosted on Friday the weekly media forum of the Capampangan in Media, Inc. (CAMI) at the municipal hall here, also disclosed that two locators at the Clark Freeport have decided to move their operations to Concepcion.
One of these business outfits is the energy firm, Infinity Solar, which has leased a 56-hectare site for a solar farm Barangay Sta. Rosa. Infinity declared a start-up capital of P60 million that would surely have a big impact on the town’s economic and social well-being, the 37-year-old mayor noted during the forum.
Another Clark locator moving here is Omni Aviation School, which has leased a 100-hectare site in Barangay San Agustin to house its hangars for light planes and other aircraft facilities. The two firms decided to move shop because of land limitation at the Clark Freeport, coupled with the expanding operation of the Clark International Airport.
The mayor said CP Foods International of Thailand has also leased a 50-hectare land here for its modern farming facility and processing plant. The Laus Group has also constructed and is now operating the most modern dressing plant in Asia here which providesthe whole chicken needs of Japan, he said.
The much coveted Coach bags, an international brand, are also manufactured here, he added. Lacson said his administration has for its priority the promotion of Concepcion as a hub for food processors, to provide an outlet for the town’s main products: rice, corn and sugar; as well as safe haven for business enterprises such as corporate farming, banking and finance, trading and other money- making endeavors.
Sadly, he said, there is no support coming from the national government except for the allocation of P200 million funds for the proposed five-storey, 100-bed district hospital from the Department of Health and Senator Bam Aquino, President Aquino’s cousin.
The provincial government of Tarlac provided P50 million as counterpart fund and the municipality put in another P 5 million. “We started to modernize our town using our own resources and nothing from the national government,” Lacson said.
We are now building the most modern police station in the country because it has complete facilities. Lacson said the police station has computerized drone quadchopper security system to initially cover its commercial district in what he described as the country’s first modern police station.
These efforts, Lacson said, are also designed to help improve the economic and social well-being of Concpecion’s 139,832 residents spread over 45 barangays. Lacson began his political career as a youth leader when he was just 19 years old, then he was elected barangay captain and then municipal councilor and served as vice mayor for three terms before finally becoming mayor.
Lacson is not related to the famous Aquino clan, the members of which, except for the martyred senator, are ironically unpopular among the town’s citizens. In the 2010 national elections, for instance, majority of Concepcion voters went for Gilbert Teodoro, President Aquino’s cousin, which local citizens speculate the possible reason why the Chief Executive hardly paid attention to the needs of the town.
Concepcion is described as a first class urban municipality, and the largest municipality of Tarlac, covering some 246,000 square kilometers of mostly agricultural land. It currently generates some P50 million in annual revenues that Lacson said could quadruple in the years ahead.
