BALANGA CITY – This city over the weekend opened the grand lighting of facades of high-rise buildings, a new library and the St. Joseph Cathedral around its Plaza Mayor designed after the famous Salamanca in Spain.
City Mayor Jose Enrique Garcia III thanked Bishop Ruperto Santos and businessmen Jerry Acuzar, Dr. Eusebio Aquino and former Consul Eduardo de Guzman for their cooperation in the project.
Acuzar, Aquino and de Guzman own the Galeria Victoria, Plaza de San Jose Building and Centre Plaza Mall, respectively, all with multi-million peso investments. Acuzar is also the owner of Las Casas de Filipinas de Acuzar along the sandy beaches of Bagac, Bataan.
The architectural design of facades of the commercial buildings and the New City Library fronting the city hall complimented each other and somewhat elegantly transforming the plaza as a walled city by itself.
“Many were skeptical for my having invested in Balanga City about 18 years ago but I have proven them wrong,” de Guzman said, adding “Jerry Acuzar and Dr. Aquino recently followed, spending big fortune.”
The former consul put up the first Jollibee store here and built the Centre Plaza Mall, the first high-rise building in the city. De Guzman is owner of 18 Jollibee stores in the country and some abroad.
Of all Jollibee outlets in the Philippines, the one in Balanga continues to be the top grosser.
“As of February 14 only, our Centre Plaza mall Jollibee store recorded gross sales of more than half a million pesos. In six outlets in Bataan, we generated P3.2 million in gross sales for one day alone,” de Guzman said.
De Guzman has three Jollibee stores in Balanga and one each in the towns of Dinalupihan, Orani and Mariveles.
A big crowd witnessed the grand lighting and the fireworks display that followed.
