A day north of Manila
To us living south of Manila – Alabang, Filinvest – we took it for granted that our town centers were superior to the north. To us was forbidden land. You hear nothing good of it except about the traffic. But last Friday’s trip changed all that. I was impressed with what the Udenna, the construction company doing the work in Clark Global City. I may offend the Makati and BGC developers but the development in Clark is superior to their equivalents in the south. Both Makati and BGC were not planned, it had narrow streets and no airport or railway system that will soon be up in Clark. It reminded me of how Gatwick is connected to Heathrow.
Dennis Uy’s firm Udenna Corp aims to build a BGC for the North but better because it has different modes of transportation readily available in the 177-hectare property. I told him the concept reminds me of Hong Kong. Dennis brought us to the top where there’s a panoramic view of the entire development.
The key to this development is connectivity.
With the Clark International Airport it will be the new center of commerce in Manila.
Freddie Placino, vice chair of Udenna-controlled Clark Global City Corp., revealed plans last week to initially spend P6 billion to develop the “horizontal” infrastructure on the property, such as roads and drainage pipes.
The group will partner with builders to develop the property, located around 10 minutes from Clark Airport. The Duterte administration has committed to expand the Clark Global City. Apart from Dennis Uy – its president and CEO were Raymundo Martin Escalona and director of special projects Evan Mc Bride.
“What we will do is like BGC. We develop it horizontally and let the other developers participate in developing vertically,” Placino said.
Udenna recently acquired the company alongside the rights to the long-term lease of the property, which would be called Clark Global City.
That deal was valued at $1 billion, Placino said. The transaction was supported via loans from Bank of China, BDO Unibank Inc. and Philippine National Bank.
So far, around 47 hectares of Clark Global City have been developed and are “ready to be taken over” by possible builders, according to Placino.
He said they have ambitious goals for the property, which would be developed over a decade. It will have a mass transport seen in the best cities around the globe. Clark Global City is a fulfillment of President Duterte’s idea of a world class center that will decongest the South and Manila.
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority is tapping contractors to build a new passenger terminal in Clark Airport that would increase capacity from four million passengers to 12 million annually by 2020.
To ensure “connectivity,” in the Clark Global City the Duterte administration will construct a 106-kilometer train line that would link Manila and Clark by 2022. The train project will be funded by loans from the Japanese government.
MISCELLANY: Before visiting the Clark Global City we visited Lumen del Rosario, an accomplished diplomat who has opened a school devoted to science and technology.
“Beyond meeting the requirements of future jobs that majority of us do not know anything about, my family believes that in setting up a science and math school for Kinder to Grade 10, we can perhaps assist in the preparation of a community of average people who will develop the habit of thinking in scientific and logical way because unlike science high schools – whether under the PSHS system or the cities’ system – our school does not require a competitive exam to get in.”
Simon Welsh, the chief creative officer of JWT Hong Kong has been invited by the Creative Guild of the Philippines to be one of the foreign judges.
Simon was born in Canada, grew up in England, was once a teacher in Spain and is in the Creative Guild of the Philippines Hall of Fame. He’s been in Hong Kong since 2013 and loves almost everything about it except that he sometimes gets sweaty.
He’s enjoyed ECD roles in London, Manila and Hong Kong, picking up awards along the way at Cannes, One Show, D&AD, Spikes, Adfest and the New York Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness Awards.
He’s bloody excited to be judging at Kidlat and is looking forward to catching up with old friends and seeing some fantastic work. I am proud of him too as my son-in law. He’s married to my architect daughter, Marta.
He will occupy what we call the Amal Clooney room in our house. Julian Assange was also a client of Amal. He is known as the Wikileaks founder and is back in the news (in Manila) because he criticized news website Rappler.
Assange has criticized Rappler over an article it released regarding his supposed links to Russian propaganda that allegedly infiltrated the Philippines.
Calling it the “stupidest” article he has ever read, Assange questioned the basis of the story, noting that his ties to the supposed Russian involvement in propaganda in the Philippines were established using only a single tweet.
“This article in Rappler is literally the stupidest I have ever read. The evidence of a Russian plot is that I tweeted a link to Rappler,” he wrote on Twitter.
He was referring to the article released by Rappler on Monday, titled “Bots, Assange, an alliance: Has Russian propaganda infiltrated the Philippines?”
On Oct. 12, 2017, Assange re-tweeted a Rappler post denying President Duterte’s claim that it is owned by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. He wrote a caption, “Is Rappler right?”
Rappler claimed that Assange’s tweet succeeded in casting doubts on its ownership.
Months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked the certificate of incorporation of Rappler.
In the article, Rappler tied the WikiLeaks founder to the Russians, quoting an expert on digital forensics research of the “murky ties” between Assange and the Russian government.
The article explores the supposed presence of the Russian propaganda machine in Philippine cyberspace.
Aside from Assange, Rappler noted that a Twitter account (@Ivan226622) allegedly used by Russia for propaganda tweeted exclusively about the Philippines.
Cited in the report were the improving relationship between the Philippine and Russian governments, as well as allegations against Moscow of meddling in various elections, including in the United States.
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