THERE’S SOMETHING about Boking.
So we wrote here, exactly a year ago. This, after we bannered “House committee okays Mabalacat cityhood.”
And editorialized too, the foremost dream of the people of Mabalacat already a “done deal.” That is even before the results of the hearing came out.
Almost to the very day, that deal is truly done. Mayor Marino Morales announcing that President Aquino last Wednesday signed Republic Act 10164, declaring Mabalacat as the third city of Pampanga.
The formal cityhood process now will involve the publication of the law and thereafter a plebiscite among the voters of Mabalacat.
Hailed the mayor: “After 300 years, Mabalacat will be a component city complete with an international airport, a freeport and modern expressways.”
Adding that stimulus funding of P500 million has been allocated for the development of major infrastructure projects befitting Mabalacat’s new status.
About all this, there’s really nothing surprising, knowing Mayor Boking. As we wrote here in 2008 yet:
Boking’s legacy
IT’S NOT what you think, dummies. No, it’s not the (over)staying power of Marino “Boking” Morales at the Mabalacat mayor’s office that is at issue here.
That is long granted, being unprecedented in the whole Philippines given the established term limitations for elective offices.
Boking has something positively grand to leave as his lasting imprint in the town he has served for so many years that I have forgotten exactly how many.
Something he long envisioned for his town along a development paradigm that – eclipsed by his more colorful les affaires d’cour and contentious election victories – remained unheralded.
For one, who knows that at the time Boking first became mayor, Mabalacat was a third class municipality and within only his first term, it soared to first class.
Mabalacat is de facto a component city, having long ago met the requisites of population and income, with a lot more to spare.
Super in abundance of potentials too, and not solely due to the Clark Freeport. All that is needed is legislation to formalize Mabalacat’s cityhood.
And that is Boking’s legacy-in-the-making: his town finally made a city during his watch, with him naturally earning acclamation as Father of Mabalacat City. Full circle goes Boking here: from fathering numerous children to siring a city. Swell.
By accident of geography, Mabalacat is indeed primed to be a locus for development: at the very crossroads of the principal avenues of MacArthur Highway, the North Luzon Expressway and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
Boking is blessed with a keen sense, with the acumen to see gold even where there is waste. Proof positive of this is his transformation of Pinatubo’s vowels into revenues for his town. That’s the quarry industry, dummy.
Now, in that once-howling wasteland of lahar that is northeastern Mabalacat, Boking has envisioned – and is keen in turning to full realization – the government center and business district of Mabalacat.
A three-hectare property of the municipality comprises the core of the local government center – city hall, sangguniang bayan hall, the hall of justice.
A total of 3,000 hectares around the government center shall comprise the business district. Already, a consortium of land developers and landowners is in evolution to rationalize, coordinate and integrate individual plans.
To attain synergy between the local government unit and the business sector, Boking has initiated the formation of a steering committee and project management group initially to prepare the development of a master development plan “to articulate a comprehensive view of land use and development trend in the area.”
Brimming with his characteristic optimism, Boking says all these – the Mabalacat cityhood, the new city center and central business district – shall come to pass before his term ends in 2010. So agreed too the consortium.
To others though, it is easier to believe that Mabalacat will become a city and will have a new government center and business district by 2010 than for Boking to end his term as mayor by then.
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TWO YEARS after, we wrote again: On February 3, 2010 the Department of Finance issued a certification attesting to the compliance of Mabalacat with the requirements of cityhood, to wit:
“the average income of Mabalacat for Calendar Year 2008 and 2009 based on the year 2000 constant prices, exclusive of IRA, special funds, transfer and non-recurring income is P144,541,537.24, which is above the minimum income requirement of P100 million pursuant to RA 9009 amending Section 450 of RA 7160 or the Local Government Code for the conversion of a municipality into a component city.”
The cityhood of Mabalacat, along with its bright future sealed. The vision of Boking come to reality. The victory of Boking in 2010 signed, sealed, and just awaiting delivery on May 10, 2010.
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Sealed indeed is the Mabalacat cityhood, no matter the one year off Boking’s projection.
Signed, sealed and delivered was Boking’s victory in the polls – with the biggest margin over his opponents in all his previous mayoral battles.
There’s really something about Boking going. And someone too, like 1st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin, now being hailed as the Father of Mabalacat City.
Yeah, Boking will be the first to proclaim this.
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SIGNED AND sealed by the President, Republic Act 10164 will most certainly be delivered with an avalanche of YES votes in the coming plebiscite.
And so we write again: Boking pa rin.
