CLARK FREEPORT -- Guagua Mayor Dante Torres is eyeing the establishment of an export processing zone in the second district of the province to boost economic growth in the area.
"I'd like to see the creation of an EPZA between Guagua and Porac which are the fastest growing communities in the district to further bolster progress and development," Torres said during the recent forum of the Capampangan in Media (CAMI) at Bale Balita here.
The area is the turf of former President and current Second District Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Torres said the former President and now legislator is amenable to the idea.
"In fact, the plan is consistent with the 50-year megalopolis project of the former president," he said.
Under the megalopolis plan, Pampanga is divided into four sectors according to their products, namely aerotropolis, agropolis, aquapolis and ecopolis.
Guagua falls under agropolis under the megalopolis project.
Torres said the second district is rich in agricultural and other economic potential.
"The fishing industry alone in Guagua is worth more than P1-billion," he said, although he laments that the industry is described as an ünderground economy because most, if not all, fishpond owners pay only real property taxes.
According to a prominent Guagua businessman, Guagua has the highest bank deposits among the province's three cities and 18 municipalities.
Torres also observed that many employees in Clark are from the second district but many of them leave their jobs because of what he called "graveyard shift" problem.
He suggests the putting up of BPOs in the district to address the problem.
Torres said the LGU is a three-time awardee for local governance in 2015, 2016 and 2107 given by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
The mayor is currently serving a 90-day preventive suspension, his third, for alleged technical malversation involving a public infrastructure project, which he is defending before the Sandiganbayan.
The suspension took effect last May 25 and ends this August.
“Ï'm afraid my political enemies are cooking yet another case for my suspension", he said, which he defined as mere political harassment. (NCS)