San Fernando economic doom feared

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Local officials here fear that the city would suffer economic setbacks once the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) operates without the proposed GMA-Porac Interchange between the boundaries of Porac town and Angeles City.

San Fernando Councilor Alex Patio, a second-term legislator, has begun an information drive among civil societies in the component city to solicit support for the interchange, with other interest groups trying to block for their own proposed interchanges.

Speaking before the San Fernando Cabalen Lions Club last week, Patio said while many areas in Central Luzon stand to benefit from SCTEx, the component city will more likely to be bypassed by the development because of the toll road.

“This will be so if we will not put our acts together to enjoin the National Government to push through with the construction of the GMA-Porac Interchange, which had already been promised by the President during her recent visit,” Patio said.

He explained that motorists from Metro Manila or northern provinces going to Subic would opt to use SCTEx through the Mabalacat interchanges to save travel time. At present, this city is probably the best route to and from Zambales.

With more vehicles passing through the Jose Abad Santos Avenue (Jasa), economic activities in the highway once called Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo (GSO) Road have flourished to the benefit of Fernandinos.

Patio said the GMA-Porac Interchange, proposed by the Advocacy for the Development Central Luzon (ADCL), has given the city high hopes of getting its share on the economic cycle to be kicked-off by the toll road. The GMA-Porac Interchange has a direct access to this city, although Manila North Road and the East Lateral portion of the FVR Megadike.

Patio implored the Lions Club, with its newly installed president Manolo Flores, to help in the advocacy that will spare the city from the economic downturn due to the loss of an access to the new road.

Earlier, the San Fernando City Council, through the prodding of Councilor Reden Halili, passed a resolution supporting the proposal of ADCL for the construction of the GMA-Porac Interchange.

Kapampangan civic leaders, after learning that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the proposed interchange, thought it appropriate to call that SCTEx ingress or egress as GMA-Porac Interchange.

Patio, to further capitalize on the expressways -- North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) passes through the city -- is also proposing the construction of service roads outside the fences of Nlex to provide more alternate routes to mitigate traffic. (ABL)