Of the North

MANOMA. Makati North of Manila.

So claimed Mayor Boking Morales for Mabalacat City to highlight, aye, to hyperbolize his domain’s positioning as the central business district of Pampanga.

The forever-mayor’s political detractors quick though to point to the longevity of the dynasts’ reign over the country’s financial capital and all the perceived corruptions attendant thereto as the more valid basis to Boking’s claim.

Makati of the North.

Mayor Condralito de la Cruz stakes his own claim of the title for his beloved Porac, “solidly” grounded on the P75-billion Alviera development of Ayala Land Inc. covering 1,100 hectares in Hacienda Dolores.

Where Mabalacat City is yet to show but the slightest semblance of Makati anywhere in its territory, Porac already has the Ayalas – Makati’s very creators – sinking in P8 billion for Alviera’s Phase 1, comprising three residential communities, a 30-hectare industrial park, two educational institutions – Quezon City’s Miriam College and Angeles City’s Holy Angel University – and a country club.

Already up and operational at the site – and drawing huge crowds, on weekends especially -- is the Sandbox theme park just outside the Porac exit of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

No brainer there which of Mabalacat City and Porac is the real Makati of the North.

Pride of place is premium motivation in appropriating successful brand names for another: in this case, Makati with all visions of the skyscrapers along Ayala and Buendia. Even when it sounds, and truly makes like that dialog from that Sharon Cuneta starrer as “a second-rate, trying-hard copycat.”

Aping the good in another is no monkeying around, it is serious business, profitable when it brings in the results. As in Porac.

That’s the upside. Now the downside to this whole business of this “of-the” titling. 

EDSA of the North.

No political leader in Pampanga has as yet commandeered that label for his/her town or city. Though Mayor Edwin Santiago of the City of San Fernando has sported the EdSa moniker since becoming running mate to Oca Rodriguez in 2004, through 2007 and 2010, and finding solo spotlight in 2013.

The EDSA reference here is to MacArthur Highway, also known as the Manila North Road, having traffic situations similar to, albeit of still much lesser intensity and miserability than that of Metro Manila’s Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.

Approximating EDSA’s 23.8-kilometer stretch from Caloocan City to Pasay City is the distance of MacArthur Highway from the Fernandino Monument in the capital city, bypassing Angeles City downtown, to Dau Crossing in Mabalacat City.       

As EDSA has its identified choke points, so has MacArthur Highway. This, drawn from the empirical evidence provided by my commute along MacArthur at varying times of the day and night.

Rush hour traffic – before school and work in the morning, and after dismissal in the afternoon and early evening – veritably grounds to a stand-still at the stretch of MacArthur Highway-Jose Abad Santos junction all the way to San Fernando city proper; the St. Jude Crossing-St. Scholastica’s Academy-San Isidro area; the crossing to the regional government center, mainly owing to the oh-so-sloooow construction of a foot bridge there.

The worse traffic situation at rush hour is in the stretch between Balite and Telabastagan with three choke points: crossing to Angeles ecozone in Calibutbut, Paning’s to the circumferential road, and the jeepney terminal at Savemore.

Usually gridlocked too is the Angeles roundabout going to Magalang, with some road works still on-going there.       

The flow of vehicles along the Balibago stretch tough has greatly improved with the median barriers preventing both vehicles and pedestrians from crossing just about anywhere.

The Clark rotonda eased traffic flow considerably but not during downpours when it gets easily flooded making it impassable to light vehicles, thereby further aggravating the all-weather traffic mess all the way to Dau.

Expect more bumper-to-bumper traffic in the area with the construction of the Capilion building smack at the very entrance of the Clark Freeport. The scheme of traffic to come already presaged during the anniversary of the canonical coronation of the Virgen de los Remedios at the freeport. The wife taking all of two hours and 42 minutes to come home to St. Jude Village from the rites.   

Makati of the North – sans the Binays – is a most welcome proposition, be it  Mabalacat City or Porac.

EDSA of the North for MacArthur Highway has ceased to be a mere probability and started to turn into a reality already. We do hope none of our local executives has the making of the Francis Tolentino of the North here.