CLARK FREEPORT – A former president and chief executive officer of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has urged Central Luzon folk to “create noise” to prompt the national government to fully develop this freeport.
In his speech during the recent induction of new officers of the Pampanga Press Club, former CDC top executive Atty. Felipe Remollo, who was the first head of the CDC to be appointed under the Aquino administration, also expressed support for the proposal to convert the CDC, as well as the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) into authorities, similar to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
The full development of this former US military is now called for amid congestion in Metro Manila, he said.
“Metro Manila is an area fit only for eight million people. Now it hosts about 14 million,” he said.
Remollo cited the need to create “satellite communities” outside of the metropolis and stressed that only Clark passes as the ideal option for such community because of its airport and its link to an ideal seaport in Subic freeport.
“There has to be political will to decongest Metro Manila and we need to create noise to get this done,” he said.
He said that one measure towards this objective is to fully develop the potentials of Clark. Thus, he expressed support for the proposal of Pampanga’s 1st District Rep. Joseller Guiao to convert the CDC and the CIAC into separate authorities whose heads are given fixed terms to shield them from political interventions.
Remollo resigned from his CDC post late last year, but he has kept mum on the reasons for his move.
There were nagging reports, however, that politically-tainted factors pushed him to resign.
Remollo, who is known to have instituted “sports tourism” in this freeport, said that once Clark has significantly developed, the so-called “taipans” who dominate the country’s business climate would move in.
“We don’t have to insist on the construction of a modern railway. It will follow as soon as Clark has become hugely attractive to all,” he said.
He recalled that during his tenure at the CDC, he had even proposed that the seat of the national government, specifically Malacanang, be moved to Clark. He noted that Clark’s location even provides better security for a president facing social unrest.
