CABANATUAN CITY — Lagging behind in the share of big-ticket infrastructure projects enjoyed by its neighboring provinces, Nueva Ecija is now basking in the glory of multi-billion proj-ects either now under construction or about to commence construction.
They are financed by the government and private sectors. These projects include the P50.18-billion facilities of the new National Bilibid Prison (NBP), the 18.99-billion Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEx), the P1.5- billion Palayan City Business Hub PCBH), the multi-million peso multi-storey SM City Cabanatuan, a “bagsakan” center and some others.
Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director head Jesus Bucayo announced that the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had already approved the transfer of the national penitentiary to this province. “The P50.18-billion project was already green-lighted by the NEDA board,” Bucayo said during he inspection by members of the House Justice Committee of the Bilibid recently.
“It will be set-up in barangay Nazareth in Gen. Tinio town which is within the army reservation,” he added. On Friday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed the transfer of the correctional facility to move away the inmates from Metro Manila.
She made the announcement at the launch of the implementing rules and regulations of the Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013, which seeks to modernize the country’s corrections ystem that is plagued by decrepit facilities, overcrowding and security loopholes that tend to allow criminal activity even inside the prison walls.
The project will be a joint undertaking of the Department of Justice and the BuCor and its construction will be undertaken through public-private partnership scheme. The new correctional facility can accommodate 26,880 inmates from the NBP and the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW), Bucayo said.
DOJ Undersecretary Francisco Baraan, who is he department’s supervising official of the BuCor and the NBP, said during a public hearing in Palayan City recently that the new facility will follow international standards.
He said the 551-hectare NBPin Muntinlupa, which opened in 1940, is now heavily congested as it houses 14,500 prisoners in its maximum security detention area alone although it was programmed to accommodate only 8,400 inmates.
All in all, the NBP houses around 20,000 inmates. The government plans to convert the Muntinlupa penitentiary, valued at around P42 billion, into a mixed-use commercial area. Officials said he construction of the prison facilities in Fort Magsaysay will need about 40, 000 workers.
In addition, the facilities will need some 4,800 custodial and rehabilitation officers and 9,000 people for prison maintenance. Based on the timetable presented, the bidding for the project has been set in February 2015, contract-signing in April 2015 and actual construction will start in October 2015.
It will take three years to complete the construction of the facilities. Baraan said once completed, the NBP facilities “will turn Nueva Ecija from a sleeping tourism giant into a tourist mecca”. “I can assure you that this prison facility will have the 4Ms with it : maganda, malinis, maayos, maaliwalas (elegant, clean, orderly and with cozy ambience),” he said.
He also said the socalled social stigma associated with prison houses is just a yth, citing the NBP in Muntinlupa is now surrounded by many plush subdivisions. The CLLEx has a total length of 65.4 kilometers.
To be connected to the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), it will diverge 2.5 kilometers north of the Luisita Interchange and will wind up to San Jose City passing through Cabanatuan City. Its construction will be in two phases.
As the detailed design of the project was already completed last October, Undersecretary Rafael Yabut of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said the CLLEx is among the big-ticket projects scheduled by the government for bidding of its construction contract soon. It will be for Phase 1, though, which is from Tarlac to Cabanatuan City.
Construction cost is P11.359 billion. Gov. Aurelio Umali said the construction of Phase of the CLLEx will be started third quarter of next year and will be completed in 2017. Phase II of the project connects Cabanatuan City and San Jose City which is about 35.7 km. in road length that will provide a free-flowing alternative route for traffic along the Pan Philippine Highway (PPH) between Nueva Ecija and Plaridel town in Bulacan Province.
The project cost is placed at P 7.64 billion. Economic analysis of the project, according to the DPWH website, said it has been completed and it said to be easible even when subjected to 20 percent increase in cost and 20 percent decrease in benefits.
The raft final report, the DPWH website said, was submitted by J.F. Cancio and Associates last September 30. Also set for construction early next year are the facilities of the Palayan City Business Hub. It will be set up at Barangay Singalat in a3.4-hectare made available by Mayor Adrianne Mae Cuevas.
Its construction will be bankrolledby the MTD Philippines, a subsidiary of Malaysian Conglomerate Alloy Mtd. in cooperation with the provincial government of Nueva Ecija. G r o u n d – b r e a k – ing rites for the project were held last week which were attended, among others by Dato Azmil Khalid, chief executive officer of Alloy Mtd. Group of Malaysia and head of the Malaysia- Philippines Business Council (MPBC), Llloy Mtd. Philippines President Isaac David, Umali and Cuevas.
The project will generate 13,000 jobs, 10,000 of which in call centers alone, with the rest to come from the operations of the various commercial establishments, the hotel and the government offices. To be completed in two years, the facilities of this project include buildings for government offices with retail and commercial spaces, two state-of-the-art business process outsourcing (BPO) buildings, a 75-room business hotel and plaza to serve as activity center.
The main building will be occupied by national offices that will relocate from the heavily congested Cabanatuan Cityto consolidate all services in one location. In the shopping mall galore, the SM City Cabanatuan is currently rising in this city. It is describe in the SM Facebook as the “future largest mall in Luzon outside of the Metro Manila area”.
The SM City Cabanatuan was expanded from its original 65,000 square meters to135,000 square meters, Annie Garcia, president of SM Supermalls, said during a media presentation of the project here early this year. Engr. Bien Mateo, vice president for malloperations, said their initial draft was indeed smaller until the company had a full grasp of business activities in this city, dubbed as the trade and education center of Nueva Ecija.
“In our initial studies, we learned that the population of Cabanatuan City during day time is 300,000 but at night time it swells to a more than a million,” he said. “We incorporated this input in adjusting our new design,” he added.
The rising of the SM building structure is now highly visible along the main highway in Barangay H. Concepcion, some few kilometers from the Poblacion ofCabanatuan City. It is set for completion in the last quarter of next year.
Also, undergoing construction is “bagsakan center” in the provincial government land in Caalibangbangan, Cabanatuan City. This infrastructure is funded by the Department of Agriculture, it was learned. Recently, a four-star hotel, the Harvest Hotel, had its soft opening in its site along Del Pilar St. also in Cabanatuan City.
