CLARK FREEPORT – Soon to be implemented is a five year development strategy designed to help Mabalacat City bloom into what its top executive described as the next “Makati North of Manila (Manoma).”
“Barring negative developments, we could execute this plan according to its time-table,” Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales declared in last Friday’s “Balitaan“ of the Capampangan in Media, Inc., (CAMI) at the Bale Balita here.
The mayor said the strategy calls for the fast-track development of the central business district (CBD) to bolster Mabalacat City’s competitiveness in attracting more local and foreign investors.
He said in place, the CBD plays a major role in boosting Mabalacat’s evolution into a more progressive and livable local government unit. Morales said Mabalacat is previously known as a “PX town” referring to the once active trading place for commissary goods of US servicemen stationed at the nearby Clark Air Base.
He said when he became mayor in 1995, Mabalacat is only a fourth class municipality which had an annual revenue of only P38 million. But now, the city’s annual budget has consistently grown to this year’s P650 million and to next year’s projected P705 million — an indicator of its growing revenues and financial requirements.
He said the city is slowly developing as highly urbanized because it has a number of key “jewels” that should make its quest for growth and development achievable, Morales said.
He cited this freeport, which is almost entirely within Mabalacat’s borders, as the current home of over 500 export- oriented foreign-owned enterprises, including a good number of entertainment service entities catering to the needs of local and foreign tourists which drives the economy of the region particularly Mabalacat City.
These investors contribute immensely in employing Mabalacat’s 250,000 residents and transients, he said.
Complementing this major asset is the Clark International Airport, coupled with the on-going full development and operation of the Mabalacat-Clark North Interconnection ramp, a two-kilometer stretch connecting this freeport to northern Mabalacat City where the CBD will be developed.
Both major facilities could further improve the accessibility of Mabalacat, now already a fully-developed crossroad in Central Luzon, to both domestic and foreign investors and tourists, an important ingredient in perking up business activities and sources of revenues in the LGU and for its residents.
The quest for a fully developed CBD is projected to require some P3 billion in annual investments, community support and cooperation, as well as a transparent and good governance – the same factors that pushed the once rural area into a bustling commercial town and, eventually, into a city through a relatively short span of year.
Under Morales’ stewardship, Mabalacat City has set up 14 high schools from nothing in less than 10 years, including a college institution that caters to 2,700 students tuition-free, a first in the province.
Work is already underway for the construction of additional college facilities to accommodate more students, Morales said, noting that this effort is actively supported by Pampanga Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda.
Morales said his administration is also committed to continue with its major priorities of helping young city residents to gain access to free and affordable college education and other basic social services such as health as well as a clean, safe and peaceful environment present in modern and progressive cities in the world.
