Taken for idiots

THE CLARK Development Corp. takes the people of Angeles City, everyone that has a stake on the Freeport for that matter, for fools.

CDC could not care less even when it speaks with a forked tongue, knowing full well that the people hereabouts could not care any lesser.

A case in point is the Capilion caper.

The opposition to Capilion from sectors in the local community centers primarily on the project’s location – by the very main entrance of the Freeport – which would not require MMDA’s unlamented Francis Tolentino to wreak traffic havoc there.    

CDC’s counterpoint, presented in a Q&A full-page ad in the local papers in mid- August cited: 

What is being done in order to avoid traffic build-up in CGF area?

Capilion is required to submit a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) to CDC. Capilion has commissioned the UP National Center for Transport Studies (UPNCTS) to prepare the required TIA. UPNCTS will work closely with CDC regarding the preparation of this requirement. The TIA would be prepared in consultation with the Angeles City Government. It will include an analysis of traffic situation in various stages of development of the project. It will identify locations that would be prone to traffic congestion or conflict points. The TIA will also recommend remedial measures to overcome potential traffic problems.
On the other hand, CDC is drawing up a comprehensive transport and traffic plan for Angeles City and adjoining areas. This wholistic approach includes the new rotunda that was constructed at Clark’s main gate and the proposed East Perimeter Road in Mabalacat City.

When the opposition to Capilion – notably from Angeles City Councilor Max Sangil, who sponsored a resolution “vehemently opposing” the project, and followed it up with another seeking a House inquiry, and the advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement – continued getting column inches in the front pages and critical time in the airwaves, CDC press released in the last week of August “to ask all concerned to be patient and allow traffic experts from UPNCTS to finish the Traffic Impact Assessment.”

That: “This traffic study and plan would be presented to concerned parties in the near future. CDC asks the public not to lose sight on how it is putting up a wholistic approach to help LGUs address traffic problems.”

Guiao

In mid-September, 1^st District Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao, acting on the city council resolution and on a PGKM letter, met with CDC President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade for a briefing on Capilion.

Guiao, in a statement to media, said he was giving the CDC “two weeks to get ready and prepare for a meeting with all stakeholders.” He likewise asked CDC to “come clean and make a full disclosure of its lease agreement with Capilion.”

At the Balikatan Forum of the Capampangan in Media Inc., Guiao reaffirmed that stand: For CDC to “explain (Capilion), present the lease agreement and then open yourself up to question.”

Upon hearing CDC Communications Dept. Manager Noel Tulabut in the same forum claiming “some confidentiality clause” involved, an obviously piqued Guiao blurted: “That lease agreement is supposed to be a public document. Let us have a complete presentation.”

By the start of October, doubts were raised by the PGKM on the integrity of the     

the Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) made by the University of the Philippines- National Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS).
This, rising out of the admission of CDC itself that the TIA was undergoing revisions by three offices.
“Please understand that there are still revisions that go through three offices (CDC, UPNCTS, Capilion). We ask for your understanding.” So went a text message from CDC Comm Dept’s Noel Tulabut.

Prompting PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz to riposte: “Is the CDC doctoring the UP traffic study to suit Capilion’s needs? Why still go through a study if CDC and Capilion have the power to revise the findings?”

Even as he demanded that the CDC should immediately present to the public the traffic study made by the UP-NCTS “as is or it would lose its credibility.”
Noting that two weeks had elapsed since Guiao’s promised meeting of all stakeholders, Punto sought him out, only to learn that he was out of the country:  
“I’m still in Bahrain. As soon as I get back on Monday, I will arrange things,” he texted.
Many Mondays have come and gone since. It is nearly the middle of November.

We have not heard of Guiao. We have not heard of the final outcome of that Traffic Impact Assessment. Even as pre-construction diggings have been completed at the Capilion site.

And, through all these times, the mayor of the city that will bear the brunt of the social cost of the Capilion project has remained uncharacteristically silenced. 

Yeah, CDC is not even asking the people anymore for patience and understanding.

Smug in its thought of having taken us for idiots.

And the moronic among us happily indulging CDC.  
Or didn’t you notice how the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry praised Tugade to the high heavens for his brand of management, not the least of which is transparency, that, they hailed, redounded to the Freeport’s success “based on facts and real accomplishments”?

Indeed, MACCI makes the greatest argument proving CDC correct in taking us for idiots.