CLARK FREEPORT -- The Clark Development Corporation (CDC) has assured that trees and heritage sites inside the freeport will be preserved.
Noel Tulabut, manager of the CDC Communications Department, said the preservation of trees and heritage areas are included in the thrust of the state-owned firm.
“CDC would like to assure the public that the trees and heritage sites inside the Clark Freeport are preserved as this is among the primordial thrust of the corporation,” Tulabut said.
To preserve the trees, especially century-old acacias, the Environmental Permits Division of CDC is conducting regular monitoring and tree surgery, he said.
“It is also the CDC’s policy that no trees are cut without securing approval from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),” Tulabut said.
When necessary, CDC usually undertakes earth-balling even if it is expensive just to preserve the affected areas, he added.
At the same time, CDC has a standing policy that all historical and heritage sites inside the Freeport are being preserved, Tulabut said.
“These include barn houses, markets, and other structures that have significant historical values,” he said.
Angeles City Councilor Jesus “Jay” Sangil earlier urged the CDC and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to preserve the century-old trees and historical sites inside the freeport.
Sangil, chairperson of the Angeles City Council committee on Clark Economic Zone, disclosed that hundreds of century-old acacia trees and historical sites should not be sacrificed because of development.
“The BCDA and CDC should preserve hundreds of age old trees as well as historical sites of Clark like the parade ground surrounded by decades-old trees, areas in CDC, picnic grounds, trees along the Freeport main roads and others,” Sangil said.
He also asked the government agencies to restore the CDC buildings, barn houses, chapels, movie theaters in Clark.
“If there are China town and Korea town, let us have a Fil-Am town in Clark and regulate the buildings’ height similar to several areas in California,” the city official said.
For a long time, Sangil said, the CDC Parade Ground has been used by both the American and Filipino soldiers next to Fort Stotsenberg.
The parade ground is one of the most frequented places in Clark which is also used as area for various sports tourism events, jogging, walking, cycling, and others, according to the councilor.
“The massive construction of businesses inside the Freeport is a welcome development but we would like to remind Clark officials to regulate the same and maintain the green environment in Clark,” Sangil said.