Development of Pacific Coast (The solution to the problems of Metro Manila)

Third Part

The Pacific Coast Cities project is only 60 kilometers east of Manila and is currently accessible via the Marikina-Infanta highway. The eastern portion of the site begins at Infanta, Quezon going north along approximately 80 kilometers of the Pacific Ocean coastline to Dingalan Bay. The west side of the property starts at the Agos River going north along the Sierra Madre mountain range, joining the site boundary at Dingalan, Aurora.

Ideally situated as a strategic growth center on Luzon’s Eastern Seaboard – Cagayan and Isabela in the Cagayan Valley and Aurora and Quezon in Southern Tagalog – the Pacific Coast City covers the municipalities of Dingalan, Aurora and General Nakar, Quezon.

The project is aptly called the "Pacific Coast City" because it is located along the Pacific Coast. Besides being an open and developable land, the Pacific Coast City boasts of an extremely gorgeous natural setting. It is master-planned as a tropical city whose form and identity is in harmony with the existing natural environment. Its full development will bring enormous benefits to both the Eastern Luzon Seaboard, including the consequential benefits to Metro Manila, as well as tremendous benefits to the nation and people as a whole not to mention the coffers of government.

The opening of the Eastern Luzon Seaboard will trigger the development of almost five million hectares of land for agriculture. At present, those vast areas are largely untapped and undeveloped. The project will generate 3.5 million permanent jobs by the time of its completion. It has the capacity to absorb at least three million more people thereby decongesting Metro Manila. Government revenue, by way of taxes, is projected at a staggering P9.15 billion after the completion of the project. With a world-class Resort City as a vital component, the Pacific Coast City will attract international tourists to its shores with the concomitant government and private sector earnings of foreign currencies, particularly the US dollar.

Master-planned into a network of communities, the Pacific Coast City is designed as a mixed-use development focused on an integrated whole. It will be a place to live in, a place to work, a place to study, a place for rest and recreation and a place for worship. In effect, the Pacific Coast City shall be composed of multiple cities within one grand mega-city: a port city, an agro-industrial city, a government center, a university town, a resort city, an olympic city and an ecumenical center.

The Port City

A major anchor of the Pacific Coast City is the development of the Dingalan Bay seaport. This is projected as the Port City. The port is a potential national flagship project that will transform the Philippines from a mere trade and consumer goods destination to a transshipment center, rivaling the world port destinations of Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

If there is population congestion in Manila, there is also port congestion there. The Port of Manila serves as the primary, and almost only, international gateway to the Philippines. Since 1987, the traffic growth in the Port of Manila has been uncomfortably high. To address this concern, the Batangas Port Development Project, Phase I, was developed. When Phase II, providing for deep water container and break bulk cargo handling, of the Batangas Port becomes operational, the traffic that would have been generated by the rapidly expanding CALABARZON (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) development would already take up much of its capacity. Of course, there is Subic Bay that caters to international cargo as well. But both the Batangas and Subic Bay ports face the China Sea. Thus the opportunity to develop other international ports beckons.

At present the Philippines does not have an international port facing the Pacific Ocean. The Dingalan seaport will address this void. Deemed to be technically and physically a good location, the Port City in Dingalan will spur the development of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac and the roads that will connect to Dingalan, the most important of which is the Cabanatuan-Palayan-Dingalan highway.

Moreover, the strategic advantage of a port in Dingalan is that vessels from northeast Asia (Japan, the North and South Koreas, Taiwan and Russia) going to and from Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea can have a Philippine way point without calling at Manila. Shipment of goods to and from the US and Canada can likewise be facilitated with this development specially if a strategic alliance can be developed with one or two North American ports. The business opportunities here will simply be staggering.

As international gateway to the Philippines, the Port City of Dingalan will become a free trade zone, facilitating entreport trade, promoting transshipment cargo handling, and bringing in massive investments into the region. The necessary transport, communications and utilities infrastructure will certainly be put in place, the cost of which is justified by the volume of jobs and income-generating activities that shall ensue.

This new Port City assumes greater significance in the light of recurring developments in the Spratly Islands, that is, over our country’s dispute with mainland China. With Manila facing the China Sea, our port trade waters are in trouble in case of an open dispute as China might very well cut-off such sea route, which is our gateway to the world. Thus, for economic, military and security reasons we must open up an alternative seaport facing the Pacific. Moreover, we need an alternate port so as not to incur additional shipping cost and added shipping time. We need this new port to move the goods at our ports efficiently to their world-wide destinations and to receive goods and materials from the world over.

The Dingalan Seaport is the answer, as it is one of our deepest seaport that can accommodate as much as 50 tonner mother ships which the Manila, Batangas and Subic ports cannot accommodate.

You may write your comments / suggestion at 15/F Equitable Bank Tower Paseo de Roxas, Makati City or through e-mail at HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"

(Editor’s note: Atty. Roxas is writing a limited series of articles dealing with financial matters and other important business topics. He is available for speaking engagements on the subject matters of his articles.)