CLARK FREEPORT – With routes to this freeport already plagued with urban traffic, the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) has set aside P90 million for the construction of the so-called Mabalacat City east road as alternative to motorists often caught in traffic catarrh along the MacArthur Highway in Barangay Dau in the city.
Juan Miguel Fuentes, head of the CDC Environmental Department, said only P40 million was initially shelved from the project, but a study revealed it would cost P50 million more. The proposed new road would be parallel to the MacArthur Highway and would run from Clark’s Mabalacat Gate up to SM mall at the main entry of this freeport in Barangay Balibago in Angeles City.
“A supplemental budget of P40 million has been added to the P50 million budget for the Mabalacat east road. The detailed engineering specifi cations of the work to be done on the Mabalacat east road increased the total projec cost to P90 million,” said Fuentes.
Mabalacat City Mayor Marino Morales said “the improvement of the Mabalacat east road will provide seamless ingress and egress within the city limits because the central business district of Dau is already congested particularly during peak hours.”
“The city government would like to see the opening of the vital east road for the benefit of the travelling public.
Residents from the villages of Dolores, Atlu-Bola, San Joaquin, Poblacion, Sta. Ines, San Francisco and so forth can utilize the Mabalacat east road in going to SM Clark or Angeles City,” he noted. Morales said the Mabalacat east road project will be finished before the end of 2016.
This, even as Morales hailed the national government for again taking interest in the proposal to link the Clark International Airport and Metro Manila via a high speed railway. Pres. Aquino recently tasked the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to conduct a feasibility study on the proposed high-speed train, which would be different from the railways project of the Arroyo administration.
Meanwhile, Morales also clarified that the accumulated taxes and revenues of the city from 2012 up to 2014 reached P1.631 billion. “The revenue of Mabalacat City increased because of the gross income earned (GIEs) being remitted by local and foreign investors at the Clark Freeport Zone I the past two years,” he said.
Morales also said that “aside from the GIE collections from Clark, other collections from permits and licenses had also improved the city revenue income,” even as he noted that the city did not increase taxes after the passage of the cityhood bill.
