IT IS an assault to reason to say that I, the Angeles City government and some business groups are rejecting the Capilion investment. We, and I for one, are NOT REJECTING the Capilion investment. Capilion is MOST WELCOME! What we are against is where it will be located. And a litany of reasons was already cited in previous columns.
There is a space between the SM Mall and the American cemetery which will fit the need of Capilion. This is part of Angeles City. As a proof, in recent years, a carnival, Kaboom Kaboom owned and operated by a friend, Mr. Louie Lopez of Plaridel, Bulacan located there several times mostly during the holiday season. Mr. Lopez will be the safe witness to tell you that he was required to secure his clearances in Barangay Malabanias and Angeles City. There are records of payments made by Mr. Lopez at the treasurer's office of Angeles City. And what does that mean? Meaning, the property is under the territorial jurisdiction of Angeles City.
CDC's plan is to demolish the fence near the former main gate extending up to where the buildings of Capilion are located and will face the already crowded Don Juico Avenue. And if only to refresh your memory, several master plans in the past administrations of CDC freed that portion of any structures and for good reasons.
1. That area was intended for an inter-modal train station where the proposed rail transit system coming out of Clark International Airport will connect passengers going in and out.
2. With the 5 or 7 storey building of Capilion covered by the lease agreement, it will choke the railway and effectively derail the government plan to have Clark Airport as the international gateway. I can presume that it will be a 25 and 25 years lease agreement or a total of 50 years with Capilion.
3. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is already over capacity with an annual passenger load of 38 million, and landing planes placed their passengers at risk while hovering the aerodrome for at least 20 minutes because of heavy traffic on the ground.
4. The NAIA is only 800 hectares with a single 3.2 kilometers runway as against Clark's 2,400 hectares with two 3.5 kilometers parallel runways with a provision of a third runway. And the national government already abandoned the plan to move the international gateway to Sangley in Cavite.
5. Traffic gridlock and monstrous traffic jams will be experienced on Don Juico road and M.A Roxas as we experienced every time Clark holds Hot Air Balloon festivities, as Capilion and CDC claim additional 18,000 workers will be hired (8 out 10 employees today either have cars or motorcycles).
Only if we can peer on the minutes of the board meetings of CDC when they tackled the Capilion issue, only to know if these concerns were raised, or were blinded and threw out in the window farsightedness, avoid looking towards the future.
The rule of reasons should prevail here and not merely the blind faith of getting an investor. If only the present administration of Clark Development Corporation (CDC) will look beyond their tenure. Most of the officials of CDC will get their pink slip when the PNoy administration will end.
POLITICAL ROUNDUP -- Incumbent Mexico Mayor Roy Manalastas will face the comebacking Board Member Teddy Tumang will try to recapture the municipio. Another former mayor, Erning Punsalan is thinking the same but hasn't made up his mind. My friend lawyer Ananias Canlas, Jr. can't make up his mind yet if he will contest incumbent Bacolor Mayor Jomar Hizon or run for a seat at the provincial board. Former Mayor Buddy Dungca will neither deny nor confirm is running. He's still taking stocks of the political atmosphere in the town. He's for sure a viable candidate who can give Hizon a run for his money. No news coming out from former San Fernando City Mayor Rey Aquino if he will be in the mayoral race in the coming elections. The latest news, the Jimmy Lazatin-Angie Hizon tandem may not happen, and luck is on the side of Mayor Edwin Santiago. Arayat Mayor Bon Alejandrino said he is not even worried of the news that former Mayor Chito Espino will make a comeback. He said he can take all comers.