Bataan rushing 450-M highway command center

CAPITOL, Bataan –The provincial government is rushing the construction of the 450-million “1Bataan command center,” an ambitious project designed to protect motorists and investors along the highways. It will also serve as the center command post for the Metro Bataan Development Authority (MBDA) and Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC).

MBDA General Manager Charlie Pizarro said that Gov. Abet S. Garcia has ordered the fast-tracking of the ambitious project, located in Barangay Dona, Orani town, to be completed before the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC). Finance ministers of APEC-member countries will hold their three-day meeting at Las Casas resort hotel in Bagac town.

“We are going to install more than 50 CCTV cameras along the Roman highway all the way to Bagac town to monitor all activities and protect our visitors and motorists passing through the highway,” Pizarro said in an interview Thursday morning.

Provincial Engineer Ric Yuzon said that the 1Bataan command center will be constructed phase by phase. The first phase is estimated to cost 150 million.

Created after Gov. Garcia assumed the governorship, the MBDA is patterned after the Metro Manila Development Authority.

Pizarro, Yuzon and former Bataan PNP director Col. Audie Atienza, (retired) now the officer in charge of the PDRRMC, met Thursday with Smartmatic personnel to discuss the installation of state- of-the-art communication facilities along the highways.

Bataan is the province of the Freeport Areas in Mariveles town and Subic. The province is also the venue of a multi-billion peso project of Petron in Limay town.

“We expect more investors and more job generations in the coming years,” Garcia added.