Clark as new NCR?
It took us over two hours to check out the new developments in Clark and we didn’t even get to see the proposed site of the new Clark City because it was way further off. Even with light traffic, it takes time to go around Clark because it is just too expansive. It is easy for a space oppressed Metro Manila resident to be overwhelmed.
Flat lands, rolling hills and even mountains can be found at Clark. In the area known as Clark Sun Valley, a well maintained and challenging golf course has been attracting Koreans for some time now. A new Hilton Hotel is being constructed as you drive up the clubhouse. And the panoramic view is simply fantastic.
Feverish construction activities are all over the Clark Freeport as they rush facilities for the ASEAN summit conference late this year. A master planned 177-hectare development known as the Clark Global Gateway City is fast rising to rival Metro Manila’s central business districts with its extra wide avenues and underground utility connections.
The first building to be completed is the now functioning Medical City’s Clark hospital which was built from scratch. The buildings intended to house various business offices are interconnected and reveal a close attention to the interrelationship of buildings, people and the environment. There are wide sidewalks and bicycle paths. A solar energy installation is providing half of Clark’s needs.
They are finally serious about modernizing and expanding Clark’s airport. The BCDA, not DOTr, is bidding out the construction of the new French designed terminal that is good for up to eight million passengers. After construction has been awarded, BCDA will also award the operations and management to a qualified private sector entity. It should be able to start operations by 2020.
As far as I know, BCDA was ready to bid out and complete the Clark airport as early as 2012 until Mar Roxas transferred it to DOTC without consulting BCDA. That was a few months after I last visited Clark to get a briefing from then airport head Chichos Luciano.
Indeed I recall BCDA’s energetic former president, Arnel Casanova, fighting hard to have it returned. The worst part is that Mar and P-Noy did not appoint members to the airport’s board of directors for about two years so that absolutely nothing moved. Mar wasted the time and talent of Chichos who had great plans that is only now being realized.
Then again, even after P-Noy appointed a cousin to head Clark airport, it didn’t help. He and former DOTC sec. Abaya ignored him for the most part. That’s why nothing happened until now.
Art Tugade knew this sad situation as CDC head at that time. I am sure it is Art who worked to return the Clark airport project to BCDA in this administration. Art knows BCDA, a corporate entity, can do the project faster and better. Art, unlike most bureaucrats and politicians, is not after turf protection… he just wants the project done.
BCDA and CDC also recently received an unsolicited proposal to build a government center from the group that helped build Malaysia’s Putrajaya. If the proposal is taken seriously by BCDA and CDC, six government departments will be the first tenants of the new buildings. Best of all, there are no front end costs for the taxpayers. The proponents will be compensated as the facilities are used.
It seems it is all systems go to develop Clark as a new National Capital Region. Of course that will take time, but the attraction of the proposal is to move government offices out of Metro Manila and into Clark.
Unbearable describes the feeling that comes from the severe congestion being felt in an expanded metro area of over 25 million souls. We all suffer daily traffic jams. And living conditions for the poor are so inhuman something has to give.
Just before he took over the transportation department, Sec. Art Tugade said he wants to decongest Metro Manila. It isn’t a cure all but it should help.
Tugade said he would, among others, propose to stop giving tax incentives for BPOs and other industries locating within Metro Manila to alleviate transport congestion problems. Indeed, they should just reject all pending applications for PEZA BPO incentives to property developers who insist on building within Metro Manila.
Ordinary Metro Manilans can only agree with Tugade. Many of us view Metro Manila as increasingly dysfunctional or even unlivable. Many of us see the need to decongest it by relocating major urban functions or building new cities outside the existing metropolitan area.
Urban planner Dr. Art Corpuz, in a recent paper, agrees that Metro Manila’s problems are indeed unacceptable, especially based on international benchmarks, but he is not convinced moving out of Metro Manila by itself is the right response. In other words, he asks, if something is broken, do you discard it (by moving to another location) or do you fix it in its place?
Dr. Corpuz warned of unintended consequences. “If the relatively low density government activities in the Malacañang, Batasan and other affected areas are replaced by high density, large scale commercial and residential uses (following the prevailing practice of maximizing government revenues from the disposition of public land), then it is likely that congestion, at least in those parts of Metro Manila, will worsen.”
Dr. Corpuz pointed out that “in the case of the 240-hectare portion of Fort Bonifacio that government auctioned off in 1995, total gross floor area has increased more than 10 times since it was initially redeveloped. It has been transformed into the second largest business district and one of the largest traffic generators in the country.”
Dr. Corpuz also observed that bigness by itself is not the problem. “It is also difficult to equate density, which is one of the most easily perceived characteristics of an urban area, to levels and perceptions of quality of life.
“Services and environmental conditions in some higher density urban areas are much better than in Metro Manila. In Hong Kong, where quality of life is arguably much better, Kowloon has a density of over 45,100 persons/sqkm; the density of the Kwun Tong district is even higher at 56,300 persons/sqkm. (An area of Hong Kong even reaches 400,000 persons/sqkm.) These are higher than Metro Manila’s 20,300 persons/sqkm or even the 40,400 persons/sqkm of the city of Manila, which approximates the scale of Kowloon…”
Dr. Corpuz is of the opinion that “there is no basis for saying that Metro Manila or any other city is too big and over-concentrated…” He correctly pointed out that we just failed to deliver primary government responsibilities to the extent similar to other cities…
Ultimately, Dr. Corpuz concludes, “city size and density thresholds are products of history, governance and technology, and none may be considered as empirical absolute limits.” But the reality is that it is doubtful our government (national and LGUs) will ever be able to put greed and vested interest aside and do what is right for Metro Manila.
This is why the points of Dr. Corpuz considered, I still think we ought to work to make Clark bloom if only to show our people we are capable of having a well – planned and well – managed city. Seeing it happen in Clark should hopefully make us realize that the mayors have been sleeping on their jobs and should be kicked out.
I hope the enthusiasm of Clark officials won’t fade until they are able to deliver on the promises. They have everything they need to have a model major city… from an international airport to hotels, resorts and the factories and businesses that are the envy of other areas. The only thing I didn’t see them doing or planning to do is a good public transport system.
Still, it is morale boosting to see the current heads of BCDA and CDC actually moving projects forward. No more excuses… let’s get going now.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.
