Pols interfere with design of SCTEx
By Tonette Orejas - Inquirer
A battle for interchanges has erupted at the national flagship project Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, with Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Subic-Clark Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan and Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin pushing for their respective sites to replace the one already approved by President Macapagal-Arroyo at the Porac-Angeles City boundary in August.
But Narciso Abaya, president and chief executive officer of the Bases Conversion Development Authority, the proponent of the SCTEx, is “sticking by the President’s directive.”
“This is probably the best compromise among competing locations. My stand is personal. The most compelling reason for me is that this was the directive of the President to me,” Abaya told San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez and businessmen on Friday.
Abaya was referring to the planned interchange in Barangay Manuali in Porac town that the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon had proposed.
Legislative councils in Pampanga, San Fernando and Angeles cities have endorsed the location in respective resolutions.
That site will be linked to a planned 6.4-km road leading either to a road on the eastern FVR Megadike toward the Pampanga capital city of San Fernando, and toward Angeles via the existing Cauayan Road. The SCTEx side heads to Porac and Angeles City as well.
Abaya said Secretary Cerge Remonde, director-general of the Presidential Management Staff, had directed him, through an Aug. 23 memorandum, to submit an implementation plan for that interchange.
Rodriguez and Gov. Eddie Panlilio have pushed for the interchange in Manuali to connect San Fernando and southern and eastern Pampanga towns to the SCTEx.
“San Fernando is the regional government center, the banking center, the gateway to many provinces in Central Luzon. It shouldn’t be isolated from the SCTEx and the opportunities these will give to the people, especially the business sector. The national government saved San Fernando in 1995 from lahar. It shouldn’t be left out now,” Rodriguez said.
He said this was within the local government’s vision to make San Fernando the global gateway by 2015.
Panlilio thanked the national government, especially Ms Arroyo and the BCDA for consulting with and listening to the people in this issue.
Abaya explained in the forum that the original interchanges in Floridablanca, Porac and Angeles had been scrapped. This was after the previous BCDA administration entered into negotiated contracts after the bidding failed because the proposals were higher the approved construction budget for the 94-km, P27-billion expressway.
Further technical and financial studies showed those interchanges were not feasible. The Angeles Friendship interchange is located at the end of the runway of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark. “Building an interchange there would render the airport useless. And to build one there would cost P1 billion,” Abaya said.
The Porac interchange was dumped because there were no ready roads connected to it. Another proposed interchange in Margot, also in Angeles City, was not also possible because this would be near the planned alternative runway of the proposed Clark Logistics hub. This, Abaya said, would entail building a bridge amid rolling terrain.
A battle for interchanges has erupted at the national flagship project Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, with Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Subic-Clark Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan and Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin pushing for their respective sites to replace the one already approved by President Macapagal-Arroyo at the Porac-Angeles City boundary in August.
But Narciso Abaya, president and chief executive officer of the Bases Conversion Development Authority, the proponent of the SCTEx, is “sticking by the President’s directive.”
“This is probably the best compromise among competing locations. My stand is personal. The most compelling reason for me is that this was the directive of the President to me,” Abaya told San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez and businessmen on Friday.
Abaya was referring to the planned interchange in Barangay Manuali in Porac town that the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon had proposed.
Legislative councils in Pampanga, San Fernando and Angeles cities have endorsed the location in respective resolutions.
That site will be linked to a planned 6.4-km road leading either to a road on the eastern FVR Megadike toward the Pampanga capital city of San Fernando, and toward Angeles via the existing Cauayan Road. The SCTEx side heads to Porac and Angeles City as well.
Abaya said Secretary Cerge Remonde, director-general of the Presidential Management Staff, had directed him, through an Aug. 23 memorandum, to submit an implementation plan for that interchange.
Rodriguez and Gov. Eddie Panlilio have pushed for the interchange in Manuali to connect San Fernando and southern and eastern Pampanga towns to the SCTEx.
“San Fernando is the regional government center, the banking center, the gateway to many provinces in Central Luzon. It shouldn’t be isolated from the SCTEx and the opportunities these will give to the people, especially the business sector. The national government saved San Fernando in 1995 from lahar. It shouldn’t be left out now,” Rodriguez said.
He said this was within the local government’s vision to make San Fernando the global gateway by 2015.
Panlilio thanked the national government, especially Ms Arroyo and the BCDA for consulting with and listening to the people in this issue.
Abaya explained in the forum that the original interchanges in Floridablanca, Porac and Angeles had been scrapped. This was after the previous BCDA administration entered into negotiated contracts after the bidding failed because the proposals were higher the approved construction budget for the 94-km, P27-billion expressway.
Further technical and financial studies showed those interchanges were not feasible. The Angeles Friendship interchange is located at the end of the runway of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark. “Building an interchange there would render the airport useless. And to build one there would cost P1 billion,” Abaya said.
The Porac interchange was dumped because there were no ready roads connected to it. Another proposed interchange in Margot, also in Angeles City, was not also possible because this would be near the planned alternative runway of the proposed Clark Logistics hub. This, Abaya said, would entail building a bridge amid rolling terrain.
Labels: clark, expressway, sctex, subic
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