CLARK FREEPORT -- Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the agency's main office in Madaluyong City will be transferred to this Freeport by July.
Tugade said the DoTr's relocation is part of the Duterte administration's bid to decongest Metro Manila and create alternative hubs.
The DOTr’s decision to transfer its main office outside Metro Manila is to move government offices away from the capital, he added.
“We will start moving July this year with offices finished or unfinished. We should start the first move to decongest Metro Manila of government offices,” Tugade said.
Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president Vince Dizon said that more government agencies are also set to follow DOTr’s move and transfer to Clark.
“The construction of this (New Clark City) is ongoing. We are already building the roads. Portions of it have already been awarded to private partners,” Dizon said.
“Slowly we will be moving key government offices from Metro Manila to Clark,” he added.
As the Duterte government targets to make Clark an alternative hub to Metro Manila, several infrastructure projects have been put in the pipeline to make sure the new city will be accessible to the public.
The government is pitching to make Clark International Airport a viable alternative to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by building a new terminal by the fourth quarter.
The Philippine National Railway’s North Railway will also reduce travel time from Manila to Clark to less than an hour and is expected to be completed in 2021, Tugade said.
The Subic-Clark Railway Project, a 65-km cargo and passenger rail system traversing the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), and the Subic Freeport Expressway (SFEX), are also estimated to be completed in January 2022.