Remollo: A Palinode

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    JUST LAST May 11, I wrote here:

    A supposition: there’s a Freeport in Dumaguete City, and the President appoints a Capampangan as its president-chief executive officer. How do you suppose the people of that city – its political and corporate leadership principally – will react?

    So is there no Capampangan capable enough to head CDC that P-Noy had to import  Atty. Felipe Antonio B. Remollo, former mayor of Dumaguete and a Liberal Party member?

    If being an ex-mayor and LP member were P-Noy’s prime factors for consideration in the selection of the CDC top honcho, then he could not have looked farther than the CDC Board itself.

    Max Sangil, member of that board for a number of years, fits the bill and more: former mayor – as a matter of fact, the millennium mayor – of Angeles City and an LP member.  I am most certain though that my compadre is too dignified to accept the post if previous elective post and party affiliation were the only criteria for selection.

    Still, P-Noy’s imposition of an “alien” at the CDC impacts on the sensitivity of the Capampangan.

     SO I am turning out wrong. Not dead wrong but alive – and humble – enough to make corrections, to do some recantation. Not so much though through breast-beating mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa but by setting the record right, by a simple factual account:

    That everything’s gone right at the CDC since Remollo took over. Absolutely with no apologies to his unlamented predecessor. 

    The Clark Freeport  potential as premium investment area finding realization in  committed investment of over P4.71 billion from 39 new projects, five expansions and 46 renewals for the first year of operations and additional P2.72 billion on the fifth year.

    The definitively-Remollo-catalysed blue chips investments are led by Hae O Rum Development Corp.’s P1.58-billion complex to cater to the educational and recreational requirements of the soaring Korean tourism sector.

    Then there’s the P192-million food-processing facility to be set up by Bonsure Everrich International.

    In the aviation field, Jamco Philippines, Inc. is infusing P172 million on a plant  manufacturing aircraft parts and equipment, complete with after-sales services.

    A first in Clark is what could be dubbed as “Hardware Central” with AT Steel Co.  investing P72 million in the importation, supply and distribution of steel sheets/coils and structural steel products like beams, plates, etc.

    Among AT Steel’s clients are CIAC, Hanjin, and Texas Instruments.

    Gourmands and gourmets shall soon find Clark a true culinary destination with Best Joint Group Venture establishing a fusion restaurant serving Asian, American, European and other cuisine. The joint Phil-Korean project will cost P70 million.

    Collectively, the aforesaid projects would generate no less than 3,500 jobs. 

    And then there are even royal blue premium investments expected to take off in 2012.

    Like MegaWorld Corp.’s mixed-use project of corporate, commercial, retail, and leisure, residential, health, and wellness components with development cost reaching at least P7 billion.

    Clark reaching for its star as sports-tourism destination finds its take-off stage in…what else, STAR – Sports, Training, Amusement & Recreation to be located in the sprawling Clark Highlands, the perfect site for a transport terminal, wakeboarding complex, soccer stadium, hotels and villas, athletes’ dormitories, nature and theme park, swimming center, boulevard and promenade, and athletes’ training ground.

    Expected to be completed in April 2012 is the US$200-million tourism enterprise of Donggwang Clark Corp. which includes the Clark Sun Valley Golf Course located at main zone of the Freeport.

    By February next year too all three towers of the Donggwang’s ODE County Officetel are expected to be totally operational, providing yet another magnificent landmark in the Clark skyline.

    And then where Levy Laus – borne by his capacity as the nation’s largest car dealer – failed in his watch as CDC president-CEO, Remollo appears to have succeeded – bringing in a car company to Clark.

    Foton Motors Philippines is set to invest US$35 million for an assembly line of its vehicles, principally vans and trucks, for the Southeast Asian market.

    Yet, another Korean investment is the development of a posh residential village with JM Star Clark Inc.’s initial investment of US$7.2 million, projected to increase to US$30 million to cover the construction of an 18-storey condominium.

    We can go on and on rambling till we turn bluer than blue on the projects up at Clark since the coming of Remollo. We can go on forever discussing the corporate social responsibility programs he has embarked on, on the management initiatives he has impacted on the CDC. 

    The man has indeed shown – and how! – the correctness, aye, the perfection of his choice by President Aquino to be CDC helmsman.

    So have we gone full circle here, since we insisted on a “Capampangan Pamu”  at the CDC? So we eat crow now? Call me insensate, it’s okay.

    Yeah, we were a bit harsh in our judgment, clouded as it was by a regionalistic mindset, by parochial bias. 

    And conveniently forgetting that two of the three best President-CEOs CDC ever had were non-Capampangans – Don Rufo Colayco and Tony Ng.

    Yeah, we concede: Remollo rocks.    

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