CLARK FREEPORT – Clark Development Corp. (CDC) President-CEO Arthur Tugade said yesterday he had no plans to abolish the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC), amid a long hibernation of the body which serves as his firm’s link to communities around this freeport.
“Wala po akong alam na ganyan. That has not even crossed my mind,” Tugade said in a text to Punto after he was asked whether the MCAC was headed for abolition.
The MCAC is composed of mayors from Angeles City and other towns in Pampanga and Tarlac bordering this freeport. The mayors are usually represented by their designated representatives.
Through the MCAC, the mayors are able to express to the CDC various Clark-related concerns of their constituents during supposed monthly regular meetings. Before its hibernation starting last June, MCAC members raised the issue of Aeta rights in the Clark area, as well as threat of fl ooding in parts of Mabalacat City from huge water volumes from this freeport during heavy rains.
The appointments of the mayors’ representatives were supposed to have been renewed so as to take effect last July, but as of yesterday or almost half a year since, no appointment has been made, nor any meeting held by the MCAC.
In a telephone interview, however, Tugade blamed the ban on appointments in connection with the last May synchronized national and local elections. Then, too, the ban that took effect for the barangay polls, he added.
But he assured Punto that the appointments would be out in two weeks’ time at most. A source from the CDC said, however, that red tape within the legal department of the CDC also contributed to the delay.
The MCAC was formed soon after the creation of the CDC after the US Air Force abandoned Clark in 1991.
The creation of the council was based on provisions of Republic Act 7227 of 1992 titled “An Act Accelerating the Conversion of MIlitary Reservations into other Productive Uses, Creating the Bases Conversion and Development Authority for this Purpose and Providing Funds Therefor and for Other Purposes.”
