[ Manila Bulletin Online ] November 19, 2008
By JUN VELASCO
SAN FERNANDO CITY — The Regional Development Council (RDC) headed by co-chairmen Gov. Deogracias Savellano and Dr. Salvador T. Duque urged President Arroyo and Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to extend the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) to Pangasinan and La Union, citing travelers’ substantial reduction in travel time and marked savings in fuel and vehicle maintenance costs.
The cuts in travel cost and time translate to opportunities for more trips which benefit consumer in terms of lower retail prices of vegetables and meat in the market and enhanced tourism.
At the same time, the Metro Dagupan Chamber of Commerce and Industry headed by Duque, president emeritus, and Andrei Abalos, acting president, reported in its meeting last week the increasing volume of north-bound traffic in Tarlac and Pangasinan in light of the coming holidays.
Filipino-American balikbayans who attended the MDCCI meeting said they were impressed at the "radically improving Philippine infrastructure" citing the newly opened 92-kilometer Subic Clark Tarlac Extension (SCTEx) which not only cuts travel time but also showed concrete performance of an inspired political leadership of President Arroyo. They said the expressway would be the major artery to the north.
Former Governor Tito Primicias Jr. of Pangasinan said it would be a pity "if the growth momentum will be set back by politicians and certain quarters’ nitpicking habit that deter progress and flagship mega projects."
Dr. Duque, chancellor of Lyceum Northwestern University and Region I’s Association of Private Schools, Colleges and Universities, echoed the former governor’s dismay of local politicians’ preoccupation with negative politics even as he appealed for political moratorium to allow the President "breathing space and finish off with her much needed gargantuan and landmark projects that the nation needs."
These projects, he said, touch positively the lives of the ordinary Filipinos.
"The President has been in great haste in creating jobs employment and livelihood activities to defeat poverty and create substantial meaningful and more economic opportunity for the broad masses of our people," he said.
"We cannot move the nation forward if the most vital source of our strength which is human resource — our talents, leaders and the general public — do not move in concert to create and enhance economic activities en route to progress," Duque said.
"It is most propitious that the President has a great economic team and a workaholic jnfrastructure czar in Secretary Ebdane who has built on record and order of President Arroyo the most number of roads, bridges and flood control projects all over the country and by DPWH region I Director Fidel Ginez," Duque said. He echoed University of Luzon chairman Liberato Reyna’s commendation of Ebdane as "a national treasurer in the realm of public sevice."
Under Ebdane the DPWH has led the groundwork for the NLEX extension from La Paz, Tarlac to Pozorrubio passing through the cities between Urdaneta and Dagupan towards Baguio. The extension of the expressway should be started soonest, he said, adding and it might be well to commission the Japanese contractor who finished the SCTEX in record time.
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