Tripartite meet. Angeles City Mayor Pogi Lazatin (right) makes a stand on the SCRP alignment in discussion with PGKM chair Pert Cruz (center) and Porac Mayor Jing Capil (left). Photo by Bong Lacson
PORAC, Pampanga – The mayor of a highly urbanized city in this province is joining the call of the multisectoral advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) to revert the realignment of the Subic-Clark Railway Project (SCRP) back to its original track.
Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin, Jr. of Angeles City said on Monday during a meeting with PGKM chair Ruperto Cruz and Porac Mayor Jing Capil that he will make an appeal to the national government particularly the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to revert the SCRP to its original track following the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX).
Lazatin said if the DOTr will remain indifferent, he has agreed to make a joint resolution with Mayor Capil and the PGKM in calling for the SCRP’s original alinement.
It can be recalled that the PGKM wrote a letter to Lazatin and Capil seeking their assistance on the matter.
In the letter, the PGKM also called for an immediate public consultation on the SCRP alignment citing concerns on the socio-economic dislocation and devastation of the vast agricultural areas as well as the built-up commercial and housing developments that the alignment traverses in Porac, Angeles City and Clark itself.
“We write to you (Lazatin and Capil) to seek your assistance in raising to the proper agencies our grave concerns over the Subic-Clark Railway Project which poses a clear and present danger to the socio-economic development of areas along the Subic-Clark corridor, our beloved city included, as well as its environmental impact therein,” stated the PGKM.
The Chinese government has signed a contract with the government of the Philippines to fund the construction of the P50 billion ($US 940m), 71km single-track Subic-Clark freight line.
But the DOTr has realigned the SCRP allegedly without any public consultation.
