UP campus to rise in Clark Green City

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines —The University of the Philippines is establishing its global campus at Clark Green City (CGC), the second integrated development that the state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is creating after the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Metro Manila.

This makes UP the first locator at CGC, said lawyer Arnel Paciano Casanova, president and CEO of BCDA.

BCDA oversees former United States military baselands that were ordered closed by the Philippine government beginning 1991. These propoerties have since been developed into economic zones.

The CGC is within the 20,000-hectare Clark Special Economic Zone, which Congress created in 2007 through Republic Act No. 9400.

Planned as a hub for manufacturing, education, wellness and ecotourism, the CGC is envisioned as the first green city in the country.

It is connected locally and internationally via the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, Clark International Airport and Subic seaport.

The entry of UP makes CGC the “knowledge and innovation capital of the country,” Casanova said in a statement following his signing of a memorandum of understanding with UP president Alfredo Pascual last May 19.

“The UP global campus in Clark Green City will position the Philippines as the nation of global citizens, hosting a hub for global education and knowledge center,” Casanova said. “It will also promote the Clark Freeport and soon, the Clark Green City, as an intellectual hub for science and technology education and research.”

Casanova said UP is also expected to provide “excellent human resources for industries at CGC.”

UP cited in the agreement its plan to expand academic programs on science, technology and arts in Central Luzon over the next five years with help from BCDA to promote these thrusts overseas.

UP transferred its Pampanga extension program to Clark in 1995 after the San Fernando campus was swamped by Mount Pinatubo’s lahar flows.

It set up its professional schools in BGC in 2011 on a 4,300-square meter lot that BCDA donated.

“We expect Ivy League schools and top European schools to express interest to locate [at the CGC],” Casanova said.

He said the new UP campus will serve the people of Central Luzon, which already has a population of around 12 million, by providing them with affordable yet quality education.  Tonette Orejas and Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon