EMERGENCE OF PAMPANGA
Rising from the ashes, the province is now a picture of progress and robust growth in the region
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— Investments in Pampanga remain steady and bullish. That’s according to the assessment of Levy Laus, chair emeritus of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PamCham), and one of the key players in the rebuilding of Pampanga province following the destruction wrought by Mt. Pinatubo’s eruptions and successive lahar flows in 1991.
“The province’s proximity to Metro Manila and strategic location in [Central Luzon] make it conducive for investors. There is the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) for accessibility. The full development at Clark as the epicenter of growth in central and northern Luzon provides a strong stimulus for viable investment,” Laus explained.
Pampanga is located at the center of Central Luzon, the region that contributes 10 percent to the gross domestic product and one of the top three investment growth centers.
Pampanga also hosts the Clark Freeport, a former United States Air Force base, which the national government transformed into a 4,400-ha economic hub complete with a civil aviation complex that includes the 2,370ha Clark International Airport.
Laus further measured Pampanga’s development by how PamCham has grown over the past decades. Of the 540 members that account for 95 percent of private enterprises that do business in Pampanga, 75 percent are medium-scale, 10 percent are large enterprises, while 15 percent are small businesses.
Because there are more enterprises now, PamCham also started helping them prepare their business resiliency plans to be able to bounce back quickly and better following disasters.
Out of the slump
On the heels of a continuing natural disaster such as the Mt. Pinatubo eruptions, heavy floods and the Asian financial crisis, Pampanga was out of the slump by 2009, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda credited that to the “deep faith of the people in God and their courage to live on.” The local business sector also stayed on despite the odds, she added.
In 2009, Pampanga was identified as among the 10 most developed provinces in the country, based on the Pampanga Development Plan (PDP) for 2011-2020. It had no fifth or sixth class towns. At least P87 billion—which was 75 percent of the investments in the whole Central Luzon—was poured into Pampanga alone. Exports stood at more than $1 billion.
Investments in 2009 created 57,000 jobs in the province, which were still low compared to its highly skilled labor force.
On the same year, inflation in the province reached 2.8 percent which was lower than the region’s 3.9 percent and the nationwide inflation rate of 4.1 percent.
Five years later to 2014, the Pampanga provincial government recorded P2.19 billion in revenues, and P2.14 billion in income. The value of exports in 2014 reached $4.925 billion, accounting for 86 percent of the total exports in Central Luzon.
In succeeding years, Central Luzon would see a growing interest among local and foreign investors as evident in the data from the Board of Investments (BOI). Approved investments in Central Luzon alone reached P56.5 billion in 2016 and hit a whopping P123 billion last year.
And the trend of investments going to Central Luzon and Pampanga continues.
Latest BOI data showed that as of end September 2018, Central Luzon cornered bulk of the approved investments at P163 billion, followed by Calabarzon with P126.3 billion, and the National Capital Region at P61 billion.
Malls and large estates
If there’s one proof of a booming local economy, it’s the proliferation of malls and large estates. SM alone has four shopping malls in the province: one in San Fernando City, another at the boundary of San Fernando and Mexico town, one in Telabastagan next to Angeles City, and another just outside the Clark Freeport in Angeles. The conglomerate’s property arm, SM Development Corp. (SMDC), is also putting up Cheerful Homes, an exclusive gated community in Mabalacat City, offering a taste of modern architecture and suburban comfort. This latest project will feature its own commercial area for the benefit of its future residents, as well as a transportation hub that will provide ease of access in and out of Cheerful Homes.
Top commercial centers in Pampanga, the Clark Freeport Zone, offices, educational institutions and other key establishments within the province and nearby areas will likewise be accessible to Cheerful Homes residents.
Robinsons Starmills has malls in San Fernando and Angeles cities. Vista Mall and Waltermart are based in San Fernando and City Mall, in Mabalacat City. S&R has two exclusive shopping marts in San Fernando and Mabalacat. Nepo Mall and Ayala’s Marquee are also in Angeles.
Alviera, the biggest largescale, mixed use estate that is being developed by Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Leonio Land Holdings Inc., is in Porac town. The developers have expanded the estate to 1,800 ha and raised their investments from P90 billion to P100 billion, which will be poured in to put up residential dwellings, commercial districts, industrial parks, institutions and leisure facilities.
Megaworld is developing what it dubbed as its first integrated urban township in the City of San Fernando. Called Capital Town, the 36-ha estate is envisioned to be the top central business district of the North, which will also espouse Megaworld’s signature lifestyle concept of live-work-play-and learn in a single location.
Other national developers have also expanded their respective footprints in Pampanga, including Sta. Lucia Land Inc., which has the Beverly Place Residential and Business Estates in the town of Mexico, and Glory Heights Residential Estates in the municipality of Santo Tomas.
Megalopolis
Meanwhile, the Pampanga Develop-
ment Plan (20112020) has evolved into the Pampanga Megalopolis Plan (PMP).
Completed in February 2018 by Arch. Felino Palafox Jr. and partly funded by the San Miguel Foundation, the PMP was allotted an initial P1.7 billion in the General Appropriations Act of 2018.
This amount, House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said in February, was earmarked for road projects to complete the planned circumferential highway. The provincial government will also need to put up a P20-million counterpart fund to finance a feasibility study for that proposed highway.
According to Palafox, the PMP would need a total of P200 billion worth investments on hard and soft infrastructure from the private and government sectors within 50 years.
The megalopolis will consist of an aerotropolis (Angeles City, City of San Fernando, Mabalacat City and Mexico town), agropolis (Lubao, Guagua, Santa Rita, Bacolor, San Luis, San Simon, Apalit, Santo Tomas, Santa Ana and Magalang towns), aquapolis (Sasmuan, Macabebe, Minalin, Masantol and Lubao towns), and ecopolis (Arayat, Candaba, Floridablanca and Porac towns).
Transportation and road infrastructure, tourism projects at uplands and wetlands, integrated water resources and water supply planning, disaster resilience and flood protection and agri-industrial development zones are among the components integrated in the PMP.
“Pampanga is the best alternative urban growth center to Metro Manila, which has reached its threshold,” Palafox said. “As early as 1976, we have advised the government to put in the right infrastructure in Metro Manila but none has been done. That’s why Metro Manila is dying.”
Pampanga—spanning 218,000 ha—can fit three Singapores and two Hong Kongs, he further said, while noting that the province’s biggest challenge will be managing risks from floods.
Clark as economic hub
Meanwhile, the Clark Freeport—the economic hub of Pampanga managed by the state-owned Clark Develop- ment Corp. (CDC)—has enjoyed high growth rates under the Duterte administration.
CDC reported a total net income of P1.81 billion for 2016 and 2017 combined. This amount accounted for 38 percent of CDC’s net income in 25 years.
CDC likewise remitted P700 million in cash dividends to the national treasury in 2017, increasing CDC’s total remittances to P3.25 million. Exports surged to $6.87 billion in 2017 from $5.08 billion in 2016.
Currently, there are 949 locators in Clark, which still enjoy the fiscal incentive of paying only a 5-percent tax on gross income earned (GIE) in lieu of all national and local taxes. Industrial and manufacturing firms here employ more than 48,400 workers while ICT companies have a workforce of 23,349.
Top employers in Clark include LCD panels maker Nanox Philippines; business process and outsourcing firms Sutherland Global Services Philippines Inc. and IQOR Philippines Inc.; garments maker Luen Thai International Philippines Inc.; Yokohama Tire Philippines Inc.; SMK Electronics Phils.; Corona- tion Premium Manufacturing; Global Gateway Clark; and Phoenix Semiconductor Phils.
And the influx of foreign and local investors to the freeport continues. Government data showed that total value of foreign investments approved by the CDC reached P2.34 billion in the first two quarters of 2018.
‘Build, Build, Build’
Pampanga is also getting a lot of interest and excitement because three major projects under the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure initiative are in Clark, said Vivencio Dizon, president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
These are the P15-billion new passenger terminal project in the CIA; the P50billion Subic-Clark cargo railway; and the P300-billion, 106-kilometer PNR Manila-Clark railway.
Construction works in the new terminal are 25 percent completed as of September, while the railway is set to start construction in December.
North of Clark meanwhile lies the 9,450-ha upcoming metropolis called New City, which is owned by the BCDA. It is touted to become a “smart, intelligent, green, resilient, future-proof and socially-inclusive metropolis.”
Phase 1-A, spanning 40 ha, houses the National Government Administrative Center. A sports complex is also being constructed for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, featuring an athletic stadium that can seat 20,000 people, an aquatic center that can seat 2,000 spectators and an athletes’ village that can accommodate 1,000 people.