CLARK FREEPORT – “It’s long overdue but a welcome development for the business sector.”
Thus said yesterday prominent trader Rene Romero as he reacted to the plan of the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) to integrate and interconnect the telephone lines in four Central Luzon provinces and two freeports – Clark and Subic.
Romero, chairman of the Advocacy of the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL), said “it will help boost economic activities if all communication girds will be connected.”
In a press statement, Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) Executive Vice President Alex Cauguiran said the planned interconnection will hasten and improve the communication among the zones and provinces within the SCADC area.
“Locators, LGUS, business groups and the people within these areas will be able to transact and communicate faster-communication being very vital in development linking the area to one another to the nation and to the rest of the world,” he added.
Earlier, CDC President and CEO Benigno “Benny” Ricafort said the interconnection of landlines in the two freeports and the provinces of Pampanga, Zambales, Bataan and Tarlac would improve the business climate in the area.
He added that private and government firms would save millions of pesos from phone bills.
CDC Public Relations Head Angelo “Sonny” Lopez disclosed that the state-owned firm saved about P6 million when the phone interconnection in Pampanga was instituted in 2001.
Of late, he added, the CDC saves an average of P2 million yearly.
Lopez, Ricafort, CDC Director Frankie Villanueva and Mayors Rey Catacutan of Capas and Boking Morales of Mabalacat are members of the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC) task force which will push for the interconnection of telephone lines.
In 2001, Lopez led the team which had successfully convinced major telephone firms to interconnect and integrate Pampanga and Clark.
The MCAC, in a recent meeting, adopted a resolution “to work for the interconnection and integration of telecommunications facilities/franchises in Clark and with Tarlac, Subic and Zambales.”
