CLARK: Destination of the Year

A FREEPORT like no other with its myriad leisure attractions, modern infrastructure, and strong investment momentum, Clark has, in and of itself, become a premier tourism destination for its unique blend of accessibility, culture, and world-class experiences.

Far from deviating from the spirit and letter of RA 7227 (Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992) mandating its very reason for being – export-oriented, labor-intensive, aviation-based investment haven – Clark has been endowed added premium value as a compelling destination for leisure travelers, international visitors, and major global events.

Of this, the freeport’s recognition as “Asia's Leading Meetings and Conference Destination for Asia and Oceania” at the 32^nd World Travel Awards held at the InterContinental Grand Stanford in Hong Kong on Oct. 13, 2025 is an absolute affirmation. 

Drawing in millions

In 2025 alone, Clark recorded 1,510,954 tourist, hotel, and overnight guests, along with 29,753,996 same-day visitors, underscoring its popularity as an attractive getaway from nearby provinces and Metro Manila.

Clark is also strengthening its position as a hub for events and conventions, hosting 196 events with 538,146 attendees, further solidifying its reputation as a premier destination for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE). 

Complementing these visitor figures is Clark’s expanding tourism infrastructure:

102 meeting and convention facilities; over 3,600 hotel rooms and villas; more than 150 restaurants and dining establishments; 17 theme parks, museums, and leisure parks; 10 sports facilities; seven golf courses and more tom open; 19 wellness centers; 13 shopping establishments; and six medical facilities. 

Together creating a diverse and integrated tourism ecosystem capable of supporting leisure travel, large-scale conventions, and international tourism activities. 

Accessibility

Strategically located and connected by major expressways, Clark offers convenient access for travelers from across Luzon.

The modern passenger terminal of Clark International Airport has further strengthened Clark’s role as an alternative international gateway, providing a smoother and more efficient travel experience for global visitors.  

This accessibility allows tourists to enjoy a world-class destination while avoiding the congestion often associated with larger metropolitan hubs, making Clark an attractive option for both short getaways and extended stays.

More so, with CRK, Clark has become a getaway by itself, and a gateway to other destinations.

Preserving Arts, Culture, and Heritage

Beyond its natural and man-made attractions, Clark also serves as a vibrant platform for promoting Filipino creativity, heritage, and cultural identity. 

Through initiatives that highlight products proudly bearing the “Made in Clark, Philippines” brand, the freeport continues to support local industries while showcasing Filipino craftsmanship to visitors from around the world. These programs help elevate locally produced goods—from food and crafts to design and creative products—while strengthening the region’s cultural economy. 

Clark also serves as a venue for events and programs that celebrate the rich traditions of Kapampangan culture, widely regarded as one of the Philippines’ most vibrant culinary and artistic traditions. Cultural exhibitions, food festivals, and creative showcases regularly highlight Pampanga’s reputation as the country’s culinary capital while introducing visitors to local history, artistry, and innovation. 

Adding to Clark’s evolving tourism landscape is the Barn Houses strip located along R.C. Santos St., which has emerged as one of the freeport’s most exciting dining destinations. The unique cluster of architecturally distinct barn-inspired spaces that served as the officers’ residences during Clark’s past as the largest American military installation outside continental USA has evolved into a thriving culinary district featuring restaurants that serve a diverse range of international and local cuisines. 

From Japanese and contemporary Asian dining to European- and Mediterranean- inspired and modern fusion concepts, the Barn Houses offer a distinctive dining experience where each restaurant presents its own unique concept and menu. No two establishments offer the same gustatory experience, delighting visitors to explore a wide range of flavors within a single destination.

This diversity transforms the Barn Houses into more than just a dining strip—it has become a social and lifestyle hub where food, design, and community intersect, offering visitors a vibrant place to gather and experience Clark’s exceptional culinary scene.

Excellence recognized

Clark’s continuing excellence as a tourism destination has earned recognition from local and international organizations, most notably that from World Travel Awards 2025, renowned as one the most prestigious honors in the global travel industry. 

The Clark Development Corp. has also been recognized for its tourism promotion initiatives. At the ATOP Pearl Awards, CDC was hailed Grand Winner for Best Tourism Promotions Brochure for its publication Clark Maps: Pocket Journeys, and honored as well by the Department of Tourism through the Filipino Brand of Service Excellence Government Partner Award, recognizing its commitment to delivering high standards of hospitality and service culture.

The Manila Overseas Press Club cited Clark for Tourism Promotion Excellence, affirming the destination’s growing visibility in both national and international tourism circles.

 Leadership

The continued growth of Clark’s tourism sector is guided by the leadership of the Clark Development Corp. under the stewardship of president and CEO Atty. Agnes VST Devanadera.

Through tourism missions, strategic partnerships, and active engagement with stakeholders, CDC continues to position Clark as a premier destination for leisure travel, business tourism, and international events, aligning with broader national efforts to strengthen the Philippines’ global tourism competitiveness while promoting inclusive and sustainable development. 

New tourism investment

Clark’s tourism landscape continues to expand through new investments and emerging attractions.

An exciting development is Clark Tony’s Motorsport Museum, an upcoming first motor racing museum in the Philippines that will showcase unique collections such as racing bikes and motorcycles, formula cars, racing carts and go-karts. The museum is expected to enrich Clark’s tourism offerings while promoting arts, culture, and storytelling as part of the destination experience.

These developments reflect the continued confidence of investors in Clark’s long-term potential as a tourism and economic hub.

With a total of 32.6 million of visitors each year, with an estimated spending of P38.72 billion in 2025, expanding tourism infrastructure, strong leadership, and continued investment, the Clark Freeport Zone continues to redefine tourism even beyond Central Luzon.

 
SIDEBAR

CDC ranks 9^th in GOCC dividend contributors

CLARK FREEPORT – Clark Development Corp.’s remittance of ₱2.488 billion in dividends for the year 2024 placed it 9^th among top Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations earning a certificate of recognition from President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and then-Finance Secretary Ralph Recto received by CDC president and CEO Atty. Agnes VST Devanadera in ceremonies held at Malacañang on Sept. 16, 2025.

 Photos: Borj Meneses, FB 

 

 

Apu Ceto: Gifted of Grace

TODAY, MARCH 9, marks the 89^th birthday of Archbishop Emeritus Paciano B. Aniceto. It has also been 12 years since Apu Ceto was succeeded as prelate of the Archdiocese of San Fernando, two years after reaching the mandatory age of retirement at 75.

Retired – we wrote here at that time – only from the administration of the archdiocese but not, never, from being the shepherd to his flock which he shall carry all his life. And, in the divine order of things, up until the life beyond, in the company of the elect basking in the glory of the Lord.

And indeed, he is as active, as involved, as committed as ever in his labors in the Lord’s vineyard everywhere, as though nothing has changed, in his status – for lack of a word – dispensing the gifts of his priestly faculties, sharing the gift of grace with his flock.

Correspondingly the outpouring of gratitude, praise, and reverence that came in the wake of his retirement continues to this day, ever growing that one feels some beatification process has commenced for the cause of Apu Ceto.   

Apu Ceto will be the first to dismiss even the slightest whiff of saintliness ascribed to him. Just an everyday human being trying to live up to his calling, he would rather be deemed, humbling himself as one “malating talasuyu.”

It is precisely though that “littleness,” that “trying to live up to his calling” that have – in the eyes of his flock – elevated Apu Ceto over and above their everyday pastors, and enshrined him in their hearts. Precisely as the Good Book says of those who humble themselves.

By transcending all socio-economic classes, embraced as much by the perfumed set as by the sweating masses, Apu Ceto is in a class all his own, unwavering though in his steadfastness to the Church’s preferential option for the poor. His mission most focused on “the last, the least, and the lost” in human society. Again, the Good Book on the blessed who shall have the kingdom of heaven, who shall inherit the earth.    

If there is anybody that literally graces any and all occasion s/he comes to, it is Apu Ceto, with his abundance of such sanctifying gift. So much abundance that urban legend has it: Apu Ceto administering the sacrament of extreme unction warrants an instant visa to heaven, that whomever he served the viaticum passes on blissfully through the pearly gates. The peace, serenity and joy as they lay in state – those he anointed proximate to death – a testament to the potency of Apu Ceto’s gift of grace. 

Less human instinct than spiritual rush for the living to reach out to, to touch Apu Ceto, and be imbued with his grace. This I personally witnessed as much in the Pampanga parishes as in the different churches in San Francisco and Los Angeles, in his three pastoral visits from the 2000 to 2004.

And not only Kapampangans and other Filipino regional groups, but even Latinos, African-Americans and whites were wont to circle about him after each Mass seeking his blessing, kissing his hand, embracing him, taking photographs with him, not a few of these framed and found spots in their altars and family shrines at home.

So, I already sound like the postulator for the cause of sainthood of Apu Ceto when he had only retired, and still very much alive. So be it, his most enthusiastic apologist I may serve, but I offer no apologies.

Touched by his grace, the day I entered Mater Boni Consilii Seminary, prayerfully hoping to be a priest. 

Unabandoned by him, in the darkest period of my apostasy, when the trinity of Marx-Lenin-Mao obliterated all faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  

Converted by his holiness – he did a Maximilian Kolbe, albeit of less-than-fatal proportion, when he signed my custody papers, offering himself in my stead at the Camp Olivas stockade, if ever I rejoined the movement. This in the earliest – and thus, most terrifying – days of Martial Law.

By his grace, I am alive and have become – for better – what I am now. As with countless others, not only in Pampanga but in the other dioceses he served, aye, every one whose life he has had even the slightest touch.

Apu Ceto is his own message. Messenger and message fused into one. It is from that oneness that emanates Apu Ceto’s charisma – in its true essence of grace endowed upon a person owing to his privileged position with the Divine, to paraphrase the sociologist Max Webber.

Apu Ceto is that good sermon we see, we feel, and – prayerfully – we live. 

(Snatches from previous Zona pieces dating from 2014, updated for our beloved Apu Ceto’s 89^th birthday, 9 March 2026)

 

 

The vindication of Delfin Lee

Delfin Lee fields questions during presscon at Prestige, Xevera-Mabalacat on March 5, 2026. Author behind him serving as moderator. 

AS MUCH for Delfin Lee as for the thousands of homeowners in his Xevera developments in Bacolor, Pampanga and Mabalacat City who have kept faith in him is Lee’s full vindication that came with RTC Branch 41 Judge Joel C. Bantasan granting on Feb. 25 the demurrer to evidence that effectively acquitted Lee and four other co-accused of the crime of estafa.

The case stemmed from alleged use of “ghost borrowers” to get ₱6.6 billion housing loans from the Home Development Mutual Fund, or Pag-IBIG fund, from 2008 to 2011. For which Lee was arrested in 2014 and detained at the Pampanga Provincial Jail for four years and a half before allowed to post bail by the Supreme Court in 2018. 

Lee's homecoming after SC ordered his release from jail in September 2018. 

In a 7-5 vote with two abstentions, the High Court dismissed the petition filed in 2014 by the Department of Justice and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) seeking the reversal of a Pampanga Regional Trial Court (RTC) ruling in 2013. It also lifted the temporary restraining order it issued in March 2014 that prevented Lee’s release from the jail as ordered by the Court of Appeals.

In November 2013, the CA ordered the Pampanga RTC to terminate the trial of the charges against Lee and recall the arrest warrant against him. But the DOJ and Pag-IBIG filed a temporary restraining order with the SC preventing the CA ruling from being implemented.

That it took all of 12 years – over four in detention – before this acquittal bemoans that travesty of justice delivery gone so trite it has become a truism. That Lee was even taken to court, much less jailed, is even the greater tragedy.

For, everything about Delfin Lee was all too grand in goodness to warrant even an iota of wrongdoing, more so a syndicated estafa scheme. Indeed, everything about Delfin Lee was celebratory in those times, as chronicled in the local media, to wit:  

AUGUST 2008. “Xevera is the best thing that happened to Bacolor, getting richer not just in terms of income but pride and honor as well. This project gives a chance to poor people to own their own houses at a very beautiful site.”

So lauded Mayor Romeo Dungca at the turnover ceremony of the Xevera housing project in Barangay Calibutbut presided over by Vice President Noli De Castro and Globe Asiatique’s Delfin Lee in the presence of Pag- IBIG president-CEO Atty. Miro Quimbo.

JANUARY 2009. “This is a phenomenon. I haven’t seen one quite like this in the whole country.”

Thus, said Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, chair of the House of Representatives committee on housing and urban development, as he toured the Xevera housing project in Barangay Tabun, Mabalacat.

“This (Xevera) should be imitated by other developers,” said Valencia, who himself is in the real estate business.

JANUARY 2009. “Bili na kayo. P5,000 lang a month at walang down payment.”

A jovial President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo called out as she inspected three townhouses at the P6-billion Xevera housing project in Barangay Tabun. She first graced the Lakas-CMD caucus at Holiday Inn Resort-Clark before proceeding to the new P70-million Mabalacat town hall donated by Xevera developer Delfin Lee of Globe Asiatique.

“They’re beautiful and affordable,” Arroyo told Lee and Subic Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC) chairman Sec. Edgardo Pamintuan as they went inside the two-storey houses costing about P5,000 a month through Pag-IBIG funds.

“Ah, simbahan ya pala (oh, it’s a church),” said the beaming President as she took notice of the Sanctuario de San Angelo.

Arroyo, wearing a red dress, witnessed Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales hand over to Lee a resolution making him “adopted son of Mabalacat for his immense contribution to the development of the first-class municipality.”

APRIL 2009. SCADC chairman Pamintuan described Lee as “a silent developer, unassuming and self-effacing.” He added that as a friend, “Lee won’t forget you.”

Deng Pangilinan, two-time president of the Pampanga Press Club, said Lee is a “decent man who has genuine heart for the poor.”

“It’s a dream come true for the press to have houses of their own. It took a private individual to make that possible,” said Pangilinan.

MAY 2009. Education Secretary Jesli Lapus led the turnover of the P100-million integrated school at Xevera-Mabalacat, bolstering this town’s commitment to provide free quality education.

Lapus, Xevera Developer Delfin Lee, ABS-CBN executive Gina Lopez and other regional Department of Education officials signed the deed of donation for the school named after Asuncion Lee, mother of Delfin.

Lapus expressed elation over the “beautiful school,” saying as if “you are in California when you are in Xevera.”

JUNE 2009. A housing subdivision recently cited by the United Nations and government officials for plotting the template of urban development in the country, was once again mentioned as the number one factor in the 92% growth rate of the housing loan takeout of Pag-IBIG Fund in Northern and Central Luzon.

“It’s unprecedented,” said newly appointed Pag-IBIG Fund CEO Jaime Fabiaña during an interview with journalists at the Developers’ Forum of the Pag-IBIG Fund Home Development Mutual Fund held at the Holiday Land function hall in the City of San Fernando.

Fabiaña, who gave the opening remarks during the forum, said the Xevera housing projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat in Pampanga have greatly contributed to the rise in their housing loan takeout. “Saan ka makakakita ng subdivision na kumpleto?” Mayroon nang eskuwelahan, munisipyo, palengke at iba pa.”

The Pag-IBIG CEO went on to praise Xevera for a having a “buyback” program of five years instead of only two years. He explained that Xevera is classified under window number one where processing is done much less because of its proven track record and reputation.

OCTOBER 2015. Even in jail, Delfin Lee was never wanting in laudations for the good that he has done.

“Delfin Lee is the greatest miracle that has ever happened to my town. See how he transformed the howling wilderness of lahar that is Barangay Tabun, into the bustling, cosmopolitan community that is Xevera- Mabalacat,” hailed Mayor Boking Morales. “There is inherent goodness in his heart, so manifest in his willingness to invest, not only his material resources, but his very self in uplifting the dignity of his fellowmen, most especially the small people.’

 Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin speaking: “If there is one person that can help uplift the lives of Filipinos by solving the problem of informal settlers in the country, that will be Delfin Lee.”

The scion of Pampanga’s landed gentry could only gush in admiration: “I am also a developer but with what Delfin Lee did to Xevera, he upped the ante, making it a difficult challenge for us to emulate.”

THEN, AS NOW, the question remains: Why did Delfin Lee ever land in jail?

 

 

 

Balik-tanaw: Diwa ng Himagsikan

 

ISANG MADUGONG pakikibaka tungo sa pagbagsak ng naghaharing uri.

Ito ang klasikong bigay-kahulugan sa katagang rebolusyon o himagsikan. Kahulugan na umusbong mula sa pagkalas sa Inang Inglatera ng 13 nagkaisang kolonya ng Amerika noong 1776, at sa pag-aklas sa Pransiya laban kay Louis XVI noong 1789.

Naging modelo rin ng klasikong kahulugan ang himagsikang Sobyet ni Lenin noong 1917, ang digmaang sibil sa Tsina noong dekada ’40 na pinagwagian ni Mao, at ang tagumpay ni Castro at Guevara sa Cuba noong 1959.

Hindi natatapos ang himagsikan sa pagbagsak ng naghaharing uri. Sa kaisipang Marxista-Leninista-Maoista, nakaukit ang pangangailangan ng isang patuloy na himagsikan, kaipala’y upang harangin ang likas na pagnanasa ng mga ibinagsak na makabalik muli sa poder at sa rurok ng pamamahala sa estado. Sa wikang Ingles: the need for a continuing revolution to block counter-revolution by the reactionary forces, both foreign and home-grown.

Ang reaksyonaryong puwersa ang pinakamasidhing kalaban ng himagsikan. Ito ang sagabal na bibigo, sisilat o kikitil sa kaganapan ng tagumpay ng himagsikan: ang pagtaas ng antas ng pamumuhay ng masa. Na matutupad lamang kung ang liderato ng pamahalaan ay manggagaling mismo sa kanilang hanay.

Suriin natin ang ilang aspeto ng kasaysayan.

Hindi natapos ang himagsikan sa Amerika nang isuko kay Washington ni Cornwallis ang lahat ng puwersang Ingles sa Yorktown, Virginia noong 1781 gayong ganap nang naglaho ang tangan ni George III sa 13 nagkaisang estado.

Bagama’t itinadhana ng Declaration of Independence ng mga estadong ito na ang lahat ng tao ay nilalang ng Diyos na pantay-pantay, hindi kasali dito ang may 650,000 aliping Itim, 250,000 aliping bayad-utang, at 300,000 katutubong Amerikano o Indian na noo’y naninirahan sa mga kolonya. Pati na ang mga kababaihan ay hindi sakop ng pahayag ng kasarinlan.

Kinailangan pa ang Emancipation Proclamation ni Lincoln at ang digmaang sibil noong 1861-1864 o kulang-kulang 100 taon mula Himagsikang 1776 upang mapalaya ang mga Itim sa pagka-alipin.

Kinailangan pa ang martsa ni Martin Luther King at ang kanyang talumpating I Have a Dream sa Washington, D.C. noong 1963 o 100 taon na naman mula kay Lincoln upang maging ganap ang pagsasa-batas ng kalayaan ng mga Itim at maging kapantay ng mga Puti sa mga karapatan.

Ang kada-100 taon na mga kaganapan na yaon ang maituturing na milestones in the continuing revolution sa Amerika. (Na masasabing nagkaroon ng sukdulang kaganapan sa pagkahalal kay Obama bilang unang Itim na pangulo ng Estados Unidos noong 2008).

Iba naman ang kinahinatnan ng himagsikan sa Pransiya. Pinugutan ng ulo si Louis XVI at kanyang reynang Marie Antoinette. Ang mga naghahari at nagpaparing uri – monarkiya at simbahan – ay binawian ng poder, ari-arian, pati na rin buhay.

Sa pagkawala ng aristokratang hanay, uring burgis ang namayani, naghari at nang-api sa masang Pranses. Ginipit ang mga unyong manggagawa, sinupil ang karapatan ng mga maliliit at tuwirang nilapastangan ang adhikain ng himagsikan – liberte, egalite, fraternite.

Naghari ang lagim, namayani ang sindak sa reign of terror – na kumitil sa buhay ng daan-daang mamamayan mula sa iba’t ibang sektor ng lipunan. Sumiklab ang pag-aalsa at malawakang kaguluhan na nagbigay daan sa isang golpe militar na nagbunga sa pagbulusok ni Napoleon Bonaparte na siyang nakapagpatahimik sa bansa at nagpanumbalik sa monarkiya sa pamamagitan ng kanyang pagkorona sa kanyang sarili bilang emperador.

Si Lincoln at Napoleon, pati na rin sina Lenin, Mao at Castro – magkakaiba ng pananaw, paninindigan, pamamaraan, at landasin subalit lahat sila’y tinaguriang mga bayani ng kasaysayan dahil sa kanilang kahalagahan sa critical moment sa buhay ng kanilang bansa. Ito ay ayon sa Kanluraning kaisipan na pinasikat ni Arnold Toynbee sa kanyang A Study of History.

Tunghayan naman natin ang sarili nating kasaysayan.

Sa isang talata ng kanyang epikong Bayang Malaya ay ipinaloob ni Ka Amado Hernandez ang kasaysayan ng Pilipinas:

“Nagsuot ng kalmeng bigay ng Espanya,

kalmen nang lumaon ay naging kadena.

At itong Amerika na bagong katoto ang dala’y de-lata,

laya ang kinuha ininom ang bayang parang Coca-Cola.”

Isang naunsyaming rebolusyon ang Himagsikang 1896 dahil inagaw ng mga Amerikano ang tagumpay mula sa ating mga Pilipino.

Sa EDSA noong 1986 ay ipinangalandakan na nagkaroon na ng kaganapan ang 1896. Maliban sa pagkarambol lamang ng mga numero ng mga taon, ito ay isang paglapastangan sa kasaysayan.

Ang pagkakaroon ng EDSA Dos ang malinaw na patunay na wala ngang himagsikang nangyari noong 1986. At wala ring himagsikang naganap sa EDSA nitong 2001 sa pagkatalsik ni Estrada. Hindi dahil sa walang dumanak na dugo. Kundi dahil walang naganap na pagbabago. Lalo’t higit walang pagbuti sa antas ng buhay ng mga mamamayan.

Ang naganap ay isang rigodon lamang kung saan mukha lamang ang nagkaroon ng palitan sa liderato ng bayan. Mula sa isang naghaharing uri, isinalin ang poder sa kanilang kauri. Naisulat ko nga sa likod ng kaha ng sigarilyo matapos ang rurok ng kaluwalhatiang hatid ng EDSA noong 1986:

Wala.

Walang himagsikan sa EDSA.

Kumaripas ng takbo ang lahi ni Hudas,

Pumalit nama’y lipi ni Barabas.

Ano ang nabago?

Mukha.

Hindi prinsipiyo.

Adhika ng liderato: palawigin ang status quo –

Piyudal na agraryo, burukrata kapitalismo,

Bansa’y sakmal pa rin ng puting tsonggo.

Aklas ng bayan, pinagsamantalahan

Trahedya ni Bonifacio muling nagka-kaganapan,

Imbing ilustrado ang nakinabang.

Wala.

Walang himagsikan sa EDSA.

Burgis, uring naghahari pa rin;

Ang masa, sa araw at gabi, inaalipustang alipin.

Ano ang nagbago?

1986. Pinatalsik ng bayan sa panguluhan si Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. 2022. Pinili ng bayan sa pagkapangulo si Ferdinand Romuladez Marcos Jr.

Tatlungpu’t siyam na taon – o isang henerasyon lamang – ang lumipas burado na lahat – hindi na nga ginawang piyesta opisyal – ang araw ng EDSA.

Wala, wala sa EDSA ang himagsikang Pilipino.

Pagtibayin ang puso, tungo sa panibago at pina-igting na pakikibaka.

(BALIK-TANAW sa pinaglumaang yugto ng kasaysayan, hawi sa lukut-lukot na pahina ng dyaryong dating pinagsulatan, petsang Pebrero 19, 2001 at muli’t muling nililimbag ng may mga napapanahong karagdagan. Sinipi - 25 Pebrero 2025)

 

BCDA trashed for waste project

“NGAYON PA lang po ay sinasabi ko na sa inyo, tumututol po kami.”

Vehement was Capas, Tarlac Mayor Roseller “Boots” Rodriguez in declaring his people’s resistance to the waste-to-energy project the Bases Conversion and Development Authority is impacting in Barangay O’Donnell: the constituency’s opposition officially embodied in the Capas sangguniang bayan resolution passed at the committee of the whole hearing on Feb. 18.

 

Gallery erupts in applause as Mayor Rodriguez declares opposition to WTE.

The hearing itself was prompted by an urgent “manifesto of concern” of O’Donnell barangay chair Wendell Mercado over the BCDA “water and dump site project.”

“Para na itong pambabastos sa LGU,” noted Vice Mayor Alex Espinosa of the BCDA equipment already on site without any prior coordination with the barangay or the local government.

                  SP hearing ‘manifesto of concern’

Rodriguez himself took the BCDA to task for its apparent consultative deficiency. “Ang sinasabi naman po sa Local Government Code, it’s clear, whatever the project of the national agency, that will affect the environment and the community, that there should be a prior consultation.”

“What you told us before, it’s not a prior consultation. Inabisuhan niyo po kami noon na itatayo na. So, it’s not a consultation,” the mayor told BCDA representatives during the hearing, referencing to a previous BCDA visit to his office where he was presented with printed Google maps of the site that did not show nearby houses and barangays, and was told they would first secure the barangay chairman’s approval before returning for further discussions.

Apparently, the BCDA reneged on its word as Barangay O’Donnel chair Mercado told the hearing that BCDA personnel have been conducting activities in the area almost weekly despite his calls for suspension pending discussion: “Ang sabi ko nga po sa kanila na huwag munang magde-draining, pag-usapan muna namin pero patuloy pa rin po yung pagde-draining nila, napakakulit po nila.”

Mayor Rodriguez has officially requested BCDA to remove all equipment from the site and halt all activities there to ease the fears of residents.

No permit?

Citing the need for the residents’ acceptance of the project, a representative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-CENRO Capas disclosed that they have not issued any permit to BCDA for the project, reported the online publication Tarlakenyo.

“Sa part naman po ng DENR, once na meron po silang social acceptability, doon na po kami papasok,” the representative was quoted as saying. “Pero ang unang-una po yung social acceptability of the residents, ‘yun po muna ang ating kukunin.”

To which, the sangguniang bayan reacted that absent compliance with the DENR requirements mandated by RA 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act), “the project is illegal.”

“Napakaliwanag na di porke't pare-parehas na nasa gobyerno, ay hindi na tayo susunod sa mga kakailanganing dokumento na hihingiin ng batas. Sana ay mag-comply po kayo,” one councilor noted.

BCDA inconsistency

Capas municipal environment and natural resources officer Gener Tanhueco raised what he said were inconsistencies in BCDA planning, recalling that at the March 2023 anniversary celebration of the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp., BCDA officials were present when the then-Kalangitan sanitary landfill operator announced they would construct a waste-to-energy project in their area.

“So, how come, after two…three years, biglang pinasara ang Metro Clark? Hindi kinonsider ang waste-to-energy na pino-propose nila. Tapos biglang-bigla, yun nga magtatayo [ng waste-to-energy project] sa Barangay O’Donnell?” asked Tanhueco.

 

                          Kalangitan landfill shutdown

MCWMC’s operation of the Kalangitan landfill ended in 2024 after a contentious legal battle with the BCDA, maintaining that “a sanitary landfill is no longer consistent with the government’s vision of transforming New Clark City into a premier investment and tourism destination.”

While Mayor Rodriguez conceded that the community had already accepted the closure of the sanitary landfill, concerns persist over its long-term impact on the environment.

Asking the BCDA thus: “Ang tanong po namin sa ngayon, doon po ba sa Kalangitan landfill nakapag-submit na po ba or meron na po ba kayong closure plan sa landfill doon? Alam naman po natin na ang landfill kapag iniwan na, 30 years po ang hihintayin bago magiging maayos yung lupa.”

Like much of the queries from the sangguniang floor, Rodriguez’s went unanswered, the BCDA representative identified as one Fatima de Jesus apologizing for the absence of any technical personnel in their team, assuring the council that the concerns raised would be relayed to BCDA management, and requesting of another hearing.

Oblique response

On Feb. 23, five days after the Capas hearing, the BCDA posted on its FB page: WTE GAINS DENR SUPPORT, unleashing a torrent of PRs whitewashing, by happenstance if not by intention, the town’s opposition to the planned facility, to wit:

a)     DENR Secretary Raphael P. M. Lotilla expressed support for the development of the country’s first large-scale waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in New Clark City.

b)     A consultation was recently held among DENR, BCDA, the project consortium, and representatives from the academe to discuss the planned project, which is positioned primarily as a modern waste management solution to address growing solid waste challenges in the region.

c)     BCDA president and CEO Joshia Bingcang emphasizing: “This project directly contributes to the national agenda of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. by strengthening environmental protection, supporting energy security, and introducing modern waste management systems. It demonstrates how infrastructure development can deliver long-term environmental and economic value for the country.”

 

          BCDA foto of top-echelon consultation

Which, in effect, bared more contradictions and infirmities in the actions of the national government on the issue, to wit:

a)     How can Lotilla support the WTE that his own people in Capas said did not have the reglementary social acceptability pursuant to the issuance of a permit?

b)     A consultation was indeed held among the WTE proponents with the academe for obvious cosmetics, but not among the people of Capas, they who shall bear with the social and other costs of the planned facility, that which is mandated in the Local Government Code. This is discrimination, if not classism, of which BCDA is turning to be a master: think of the Aetas in NCC, the shareholders brouhaha in John Hay, and yes, the highhandedness in the case of the Kalangitan landfill.          

c)     While the WTE project may contribute to the national agenda of President Marcos, its pursuit by the BCDA is a total negation of the president’s express policy for government agencies to secure local government unit approval before implementing national government-funded projects, to wit: 

“Dati, ang sistema, pagka may project sa isang lugar, halimbawa, mayor ako        na may project ng DPWH o contractor doon sa lugar ko, magkokonsulta sa local government,” Marcos Jr. had said during the inspection of flood control projects in Tuba, Benguet in August last year. “Hindi lang, ‘pag malaki ang project, hini-hearing ‘yan from barangay to municipal to province. Walang ganoon. Walang ganoon na ginawa dito sa lahat na ito [flood control projects]. We are bringing that back because it was removed in the last administration. We are putting it back since it is one of the best safeguards we have.”  

Is BCDA discarding that “best safeguard” in its pursuit of the P4-billion waste-to-water facility in Barangay O’Donnell, Capas, Tarlac?

                                 BCDA’s WTE artcard  

That, ultimately, is the proverbial P400-million question, so to speak in the Filipino context, rising out of the Capas SB hearing.

(Sources: Sangguniang Bayan ng Capas FB Page, Tarlakenyo, BCDA Group FB Page)

 

 

 

 

 

The farce that was EDSA

                        photograbbed online

FORTY YEARS ago this month, the EDSA Revolt gifted the world with “people power.” The phrase was readily accredited to Cardinal Sin after he went on air to call on the nation “to use your power as a people” initially to “save” the embattled mutineers led by Enrile and Ramos from sure annihilation by the Marcos forces.

I do not mean to pull the rug from under the long dearly departed Sin. In the April 8-14, 1984 issue of The Voice – two months short of two years before EDSA Uno, the phrase already appeared in my column Ingkung Milio, thus titled:

People Power and the Filipino

IN THE annals of political struggles, war included, people power has long claimed its rightful place as the major determining factor in the outcome.

This power received its utmost glorification in the social philosophies of Marx as embodied in his Communist Manifesto and put to empirical application in the Soviet and Chinese revolutions and countless other uprisings in those moulds, as well as in the failed Allende experiment in Chile.

That great Asian, Mao Tse-tung summed up the potency of people power in various quotations in his Little Red Book, most prominent of which was: “The people are the ocean, we are the fish that swim in that ocean.” There too was his stratagem of marshalling the people from the countrysides toward the encirclement of the cities.

With all these leftward tendencies of people power harnessing, populism has come to be identified with the communist prescription of wresting power from the ruling circle.
In its essence however, any move, be it parliamentary or revolutionary, has to mobilize people power to reach its successful or liberating end.

While we have seen people power in the collective anguish and indignation over Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, we have yet to see it in terms of concrete moves directed at our socio-economic and political liberation.

Our history as a people is so replete with the kisses of Judas that they have become part and parcel of the Filipino psyche. The betrayal of the Katipunan, Vicos to Diego Silang, the Macabebe scouts in Tirad Pass and Palanan (as held at that time), the Makapili during the Japanese Occupation, not to mention the American boys and unconscionable cronies, are glaring examples of the quislings who have always sold their country and their people in exchange for personal gains.

More glaring even are the current events related to the coming Batasan polls. The Opposition is united only in name – the first term in its acronym UNIDO. Beyond that, there is not even the finest thread that holds them together.

True, they all have an aversion to Marcos. Truer yet, they all draw “strength and inspiration” from the martyred Ninoy Aquino. Truest tough, there is no clear-cut, selfless, and nationalistic ideological basis for all their actions. Rather, it is a case of everyone to his own selfish motive and ambition. 

                                  photograbbed online

Invoking guidance from the sacrifice of Ninoy, they aspire – conspire may be the apt word – to move the people to exercise their potency for change. Not for the people’s own welfare, in the ultimate analysis, but for the advancement of their personal political ambitions. 

It is Robespierre and his manipulation of the French masses in the 1790s all over again. Nearer home, it is the Tejeros debacle re-staged in a not-totally dissimilar setting.

The fault however does not solely lie in these opportunists. Much of the blame is traceable to the people themselves.

The people, in all naivete and perhaps due to their fatalism bred by colonizers, foreign and home-grown, have been so accustomed to their hapless state that they could not see a power greater than the gun or the peso, even the devalued one. Bonifacio’s walis tingting has yet to form from the countless coconut ribs lying for the picking. For a mere pittance, even those who wailed the most at Aquino’s wake and funeral found themselves like sheep herded to provide an audience to some ruler’s folly.

We will see more of these idiocies until May 14. To impress the greater mass of voters, politicians would pay for every shout of “Mabuhay!”, for every wearer of a vote T-shirt, for every trumped-up attestation of love for a candidate.

People power? In many a Third World country, this is the new order of things. In the Philippines, it is seen more in the powerlessness of the people to rise, stomp their feet, and state that enough is enough. 

Ah, yes, despite all these, there is people power in this nation of cowards, to quote Mansfield. To us that power is the people’s strength in crying out in pain for years, and their power to bear all sorts of insults and injustice. And their powerful refusal too to transform anguish into a fiery zeal for their own liberation. 

Ninoy, you may have been wrong. It seems the Filipino is not worth dying for. (First reprinted in Punto! on February 16, 2008)

                          Photo: Romeo Gacad/AFP

AND THEN came EDSA Uno.

A vindication of Ninoy, his widow in yellow triumphant. Shining moment of the Filipino before the admiring world. Brief shining moment like the mythical Camelot, it turned out. Within 10 years, the Marcoses were back, their northern bailiwick as strong as ever.

A short 15 years after, EDSA Dos came. No, not against the dictator’s remnants, but one petty excuse for a president.

Another Aquino, the BS III in an interregnum of sorts, sampling Pampanga’s Glory-Been in his self-caricature of Mr. Clean.

In another 15 years from EDSA’s second coming, the nation descended to Duterte’s despotism. 

                             photograbbed online 

2022. But one generation removed from the original EDSA, comes the son and namesake of the dictator at the cusp of claiming his birthright to the presidency.

Never again. Never forget. Not ever in the Filipino, alas.

Marx paraphrased: History repeating itself in the tragedy that was Marcos Senior and the farce that is Marcos Junior.

And now Duterte daughter drooling over 2028.

Santayana impacted: Unlearning of the lessons of history, we are a people dumbed, we are a nation damned.

Rabelais dead-on: “Draw the curtains, the farce is played.”

Game over.