‘Expo a meaningful legacy’

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Returning to the controversial Expo Pilipino for the first time last Friday since he ordered it built during his presidency, former President Fidel Ramos hailed the project as "probably the only meaningful legacy" to future generations of Filipinos.

Ordered shut down by Ramos’ successor, former President Joseph Estrada, the 60-hectare Expo Pilipino will be taken over by the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) next month in a bid to make profitable as a world-class theme park.

The Expo Pilipino, built as centerpiece of the Philippine Independence centennial celebration in 1998, is owned by the government-run National Development Corp. and its private partner, the Asia Construction Development Corp.

"We must continue this effort of reviewing and enhancing our assets like the Expo Pilipino, which was intended to be the repository of our indigenous culture, our colonial past and our heroic struggle for independence," Ramos said during the launch of the International Furniture Show at the main pavilion of the P3.2-billion theme park.

Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman filed graft charges against former Vice President Salvador Laurel in connection with alleged overpricing in the construction of the park’s Freedom Ring.

Laurel was chairman of the National Centennial Commission during the Ramos administration and was in charge of the project.

Ramos said the Expo Pilipino is at par with other international landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and the Sydney Opera House.

When these foreign landmarks were still new, he said their host governments and proponents were "castigated and severely criticized because all of (the structures) were considered white elephants or (were) even investigated as scams."

Ramos expressed hopes that the Expo Pilipino would eventually be regarded not only as a landmark, but also for the opportunities for "revenues, livelihood and profit" it offers.