OVER 57,000 workers. More than double the highest level of employment at the time of the Americans.
Some 500 investors in myriad concerns: light and heavy industries, commercial, telecommunications, business process outsourcing, tourism and what-have-you, adding up to P68.63 billion in realized investments.
A total of $949,950,709 in exports.
A total of 164 new projects signed, 65 newly-signed contracts, 22 expansion projects for P13.11 billion committed investments, generating 13,737 committed employment.
Indeed a world class status for the Clark Freeport there. And the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) has not even kicked in that equation its own largesse: the increasing number of international flights, notably by Cebu Pacific which has made Clark its third hub; projected 1 million passengers this year; the new terminal building to be completed by next year to service up to 4 million passengers.
And then, there is the Next Frontier, Clark Development Corp.’s new flagship development project to meet the growing demand of investors for more space at Clark, given the almost fully leased out land at the main Freeport. The cost of development: a staggering P11.18 billion.
The promise of the Next Frontier is brighter than bright – yeah, so bright you’ll need sunglasses, as the CDC operative phrase of some years back put it. There is a Taiwanese Donggwang investor for an economic zone in the area. An Orchids World, presumably some garden type, flower propagation enterprise; a tourism project by a firm called Grand Canyon; an area for the Philippine Tourism Authority project for the sport-of-the-moment, wake boarding; an industrial zone; and the Central Luzon campus of the Philippine Science High School.
Wow! Spoilsport for me to rain on the glorious parade of the Clark Freeport though. But I have to. And no apologies to those who’ll get drenched.
No real hold but all pretension to world class status shall ever obtain at the Clark Freeport without a decent medical facility there.
But there are medical facilities at the Freeport, so you tell me, namely: the CDC clinic, the Mimosa Clinic, and the emergency hospital of the Philippine Air Force. Yeah, right. World-class are these facilities: Third World-class. But a notch higher than the district hospital in the farthest reaches of Tawi-Tawi.
Only last night, I heard the lamentation of some kin of a young drowning victim in one of the tourism estates at Clark: “If only there is a well-equipped hospital at the Freeport, our dear one could have been saved.”
Only last January, the broad-based Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) underscored the need for a Clark hospital thus: “The world class aspiration of the Clark Freeport will never come to full realization without an established medical facility thereat to meet the demands of locators and the contingencies at the DMIA.”
The PGKM’s Pert Cruz as far back as 2003 had already aired the call for the CDC to rehabilitate the United States Air Force Regional Medical Center that was heavily damaged by the Mount Pinatubo eruptions and looted of its contents in the aftermath.
Still fresh in the memory of Angeles City and Mabalacat residents how at its peak, the USAF hospital was considered the most modern and best equipped din the Asia-Pacific region, especially its burn unit.
The ruins have since been used as location for horror and action movies and as training area for close quarters combat by the police and military. Last year CDC entered into a P2-billion contract with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to transform the ruins of the facility and its contiguous areas for a gaming and entertainment resort center.
It does not take much brain to see the real need for a hospital at Clark.
Picture the scenario of a major accident at the DMIA – God forbid! – that will most certainly turn into a world-class catastrophe given the absence of any medical facility at Clark. Imagine transporting the casualties from the airport to various hospitals in the city through the traffic chokepoints.
Or an explosion – like that of a boiler in a styrofoam factory in Bulacan – and you have one hell of a disaster there.
It is right for the CDC to consider some Next Frontier for Clark. It is most fitting though for this Next Frontier to be in the medical field. Catering to the investors and their employees, to the airport and its stakeholders.
It does not take much brain to see that.
Some 500 investors in myriad concerns: light and heavy industries, commercial, telecommunications, business process outsourcing, tourism and what-have-you, adding up to P68.63 billion in realized investments.
A total of $949,950,709 in exports.
A total of 164 new projects signed, 65 newly-signed contracts, 22 expansion projects for P13.11 billion committed investments, generating 13,737 committed employment.
Indeed a world class status for the Clark Freeport there. And the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) has not even kicked in that equation its own largesse: the increasing number of international flights, notably by Cebu Pacific which has made Clark its third hub; projected 1 million passengers this year; the new terminal building to be completed by next year to service up to 4 million passengers.
And then, there is the Next Frontier, Clark Development Corp.’s new flagship development project to meet the growing demand of investors for more space at Clark, given the almost fully leased out land at the main Freeport. The cost of development: a staggering P11.18 billion.
The promise of the Next Frontier is brighter than bright – yeah, so bright you’ll need sunglasses, as the CDC operative phrase of some years back put it. There is a Taiwanese Donggwang investor for an economic zone in the area. An Orchids World, presumably some garden type, flower propagation enterprise; a tourism project by a firm called Grand Canyon; an area for the Philippine Tourism Authority project for the sport-of-the-moment, wake boarding; an industrial zone; and the Central Luzon campus of the Philippine Science High School.
Wow! Spoilsport for me to rain on the glorious parade of the Clark Freeport though. But I have to. And no apologies to those who’ll get drenched.
No real hold but all pretension to world class status shall ever obtain at the Clark Freeport without a decent medical facility there.
But there are medical facilities at the Freeport, so you tell me, namely: the CDC clinic, the Mimosa Clinic, and the emergency hospital of the Philippine Air Force. Yeah, right. World-class are these facilities: Third World-class. But a notch higher than the district hospital in the farthest reaches of Tawi-Tawi.
Only last night, I heard the lamentation of some kin of a young drowning victim in one of the tourism estates at Clark: “If only there is a well-equipped hospital at the Freeport, our dear one could have been saved.”
Only last January, the broad-based Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) underscored the need for a Clark hospital thus: “The world class aspiration of the Clark Freeport will never come to full realization without an established medical facility thereat to meet the demands of locators and the contingencies at the DMIA.”
The PGKM’s Pert Cruz as far back as 2003 had already aired the call for the CDC to rehabilitate the United States Air Force Regional Medical Center that was heavily damaged by the Mount Pinatubo eruptions and looted of its contents in the aftermath.
Still fresh in the memory of Angeles City and Mabalacat residents how at its peak, the USAF hospital was considered the most modern and best equipped din the Asia-Pacific region, especially its burn unit.
The ruins have since been used as location for horror and action movies and as training area for close quarters combat by the police and military. Last year CDC entered into a P2-billion contract with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to transform the ruins of the facility and its contiguous areas for a gaming and entertainment resort center.
It does not take much brain to see the real need for a hospital at Clark.
Picture the scenario of a major accident at the DMIA – God forbid! – that will most certainly turn into a world-class catastrophe given the absence of any medical facility at Clark. Imagine transporting the casualties from the airport to various hospitals in the city through the traffic chokepoints.
Or an explosion – like that of a boiler in a styrofoam factory in Bulacan – and you have one hell of a disaster there.
It is right for the CDC to consider some Next Frontier for Clark. It is most fitting though for this Next Frontier to be in the medical field. Catering to the investors and their employees, to the airport and its stakeholders.
It does not take much brain to see that.
