Pampanga ready to become next metropolis

BRAVE The Heroes Hall, an annex of the old city hall of San Fernando, proudly displays Kapampangan men and women who changed the course of Philippine history for the better. —RAY ZAMBRANO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—When it marked its 20th anniversary on Oct. 3, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PamCham) chose to retain the same singular advocacy it held in 2003: “Priming Countryside Business.”

That’s because the “battle cry” was true then as it is now, said Renato “Rene” Romero, one of PamCham’s founders and a past president.

The two upheavals that the chamber had experienced proved that true, explained Romero, now a director for infrastructure development of the chamber.

Its precursor, the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was formed in 1983 and helped local businesses cope with the economic difficulties following the assassination of former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. that year.

The other founder, Levy Laus, rallied the chamber to save Pampanga, especially the capital San Fernando, after Mt. Pinatubo’s June 15, 1991, eruption, the world’s second-biggest volcanic blast in the 20th century.

RIGHT MOVE A CENTURY AGO The provincial capitol, Pampanga’s seat of political power, was transferred from Bacolor town to San Fernando in 1904. The move is found to be correct until now because the North South Commuter Railway is being built right next to the capitol. —WILLIE O. LOMIBAO

To defend the capital and businesses there, which at the time were said to amount to P10 billion, the San Fernando Chamber clamored for the construction of what was later named FVR Megadike in 1996, just after the deadly lahar onslaught of 1995. Because the lahar catchment did not protect the southeastern side, the San Fernando Chamber raised funds to help build the San Fernando-Sto. Tomas-Minalin Tail Dike and protect businesses there.

The rebuilding from the disaster wrought by Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption needed a province-wide approach.

“So PamCham was born,” recalled Teresa David-Carlos, the current PamCham president, who has served as director since 2003 for the banking sector.

LEADERS Teresa David-Carlos (L) and Renato Romero (R), current and past presidents of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, respectively, steer the organization to continue living its mission of priming countryside business. —RAY ZAMBRANO AND WILLIE O. LOMIBAO

‘Single, powerful voice’

Laus and Romero, then the North Luzon vice president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce, helped reorganize the San Fernando Chamber into a provincial chamber.

“Our latest aspiration now is to be the unified voice of Pampanga. ‘Priming Countryside Business’ [means] uniting, promoting and advocating for business development. We’re trying to unify the whole province’s business community so that we will have a single voice. And a powerful voice,” said Romero.

“The business sector has to work with the local government units (LGUs). If not, the business community will always be excluded from the plans of LGUs. The people will lose their jobs, income, and purchasing power. The LGUs won’t notice that their economic status is waning,” he added.

PamCham’s campaigns gained national significance. Its call in 2013 to “decongest Metro Manila ‘’ was more for disaster preparedness in light of “The Big One”—which was how the anticipated 7.2 magnitude earthquake or stronger was called—and continuity of governance and business.

The government listened, building the administrative center in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.

PamCham has long pushed for a third viaduct in the middle of the two old viaducts of the North Luzon Expressway, and it began to be built in 2023.

Minus Metro woes

LIFELINE The Candaba viaduct along the North Luzon Expressway connecting Bulacan and Pampangas is not just being repaired. A third bridge is being constructed in the middle of the structure to carry cargo trucks—as pushed by the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Laus, they remembered, wanted Pampanga and six more provinces to be like Metro Central Luzon but without the problems of Metro Manila.

With Singapore as a model, PamCham made several development plans that did not catch on until former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, an economist, commissioned architect Felino Palafox Jr. to do the Pampanga Megalopolis plan.

Some of PamCham’s ideas were considered, including dividing the province into quadrants according to industrial, commerce, agriculture and tourism.

In PamCham’s assessment, less than 10 percent of the Megalopolis plan has been accomplished, given the limited national budget public leaders have obtained.

According to Romero, Central Luzon has yet to recover its standing as the top investment center before the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region embraced that spot. The reversal happened after the eruption.

In Pampanga, PamCham’s focus is on emerging towns and cities by mentoring micro, small and medium enterprises, and linking human resources there to investments based at the Clark Freeport.

PamCham’s participation in governance is through membership in the multisectoral governance council in the City of San Fernando and development councils in the province, 19 towns and two cities.

One aspiration

GOLD Sand and stones that Mt. Pinatubo spewed during its 1991 eruption are Pampanga’s biggest source of local income, earning from the construction industry. —WILLIE O. LOMIBAO

“We’re good friends with local government officials. That’s what’s good about us in the Pampanga Chamber. All the mayors, the governor and congressmen, we work hand in hand with them, whether we voted for them or not. When they assume their posts, we work together because we have one aspiration— to develop the province,” said Romero.

Carlos said the operations of four SM malls, Ayala Corporation’s entry through Alviera, the properties of Megaworld and Century, and investments of the Villar Group in water, real estate, and retail tell of a vibrant economy in Pampanga in the last two decades.

San Fernando alone hosts more than 80 branches of banks, Carlos noted. “There’s so much money in Pampanga. That speaks of [a vibrant] economy,” she added.

The owners or heirs of big homegrown businesses like Willie Tan’s Hausland, meat processors Mekeni and Pampanga’s Best, and car dealer Laus Group of Companies (LGC) sit on the PamCham board, which has 12 committees.

These are on MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), food security, climate resilience and sustainability, infrastructure, tourism, information and communications, business education, health and wellness, membership retention and development, ways and means, and corporate social responsibility.

Next generation

The second generation of business leaders has emerged, like Lisset Laus Velasco, chair of LGC, who has this view: “That’s why people were able to really live. They were able to thrive and, at the same time, continue on with their business despite [the pandemic] because the local government has been really consulting with the private sector.”

NEXT GEN Lisset Laus-Velasco, chair of the Laus Group of Companies, says the second generation of business people is emerging in Pampanga, their elders’ good ideas paving the way for them. —WILLIE O. LOMIBAO

“If truly the projects that [the first generation] thought about will come to fruition, we will be very happy to continue these for them because [these are] very brilliant. We always want our own hometown to progress,” Velasco further said.

She observed that sales of vehicles had been provincial-driven.

“So I guess there is really so much growth and potential outside, and I just hope our progress will continue as well as our working relationship with the local government because we are partners, we should be partners. We can only do this if we do it together; we can’t do it alone, but individually, as the private sector, we try our very best to help boost the province without waiting, “ Velasco said.

She added: “But at the end of the day, it would be better if we unite together with the local government and, at the same time, the private sector so our success would be much faster.”

With its resilience already tested by the Pinatubo disaster and the COVID-19 pandemic, the business sector has to prepare to deal with cybersecurity issues, said Velasco.

Romero wanted a strong push for the tourism sector, especially the culinary side, to boost the economy in coastal areas, including fisheries.

The Clark International Airport and North South Commuter Railway, with their depot on the Mabalacat side of Clark, are seen to enhance the mobility of tourists and workers in Pampanga, PamCham leaders said.

As a member of the Pampanga Investment Board, Velasco said health-care facilities are an investment priority, given the lessons learned during the pandemic.

Velasco has “high hopes because I feel that we are lucky enough to have local governments that are really working together with the private sector. That’s about it. Otherwise, if that doesn’t happen, nothing will come out of it.”

“We can only do so much as a private sector, the same way as the government can only do so much. It has to be a partnership between both,” she said. INQ