Mangaldan Mayor to meet top brass of SM

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN – Mayor Bonafe de Vera-Parayno plans to meet the leadership of SM Prime Holding, Inc. (SMPHI) in Manila to offer a village here so the retail giant can put shop.

“I’m planning to go there, ipakilala ko ang Mangaldan. That there is a strategic space for SM where madadaanan ng mga ta-o to the pilgrim town of Manaoag and going to the summer capital Baguio City,” she stressed.

Parayno refers to Brgy. Anolid as an ideal place to host the biggest regional mall in Northern Luzon after the chances of SMPHI to build an edifice in Brgy. Tambac, Dagupan City went to uncertainty. Some sourcesblamed the election of city mayor Belen Fernandez, a mall czarina, to office in May 2013.

Anolid is located at the boundary of Dagupan City and this bustling town.

“Daanan talaga (Anolid) ang area na iyan. Actually it is near Dagupan City. Nakita ko na ang mga lupa doon marami pa rin”.

She said she wants to formally offer the town vast swath of land to the Sys controlled corporation for them to build a mall.

According to Sta. Barbara Mayor Carlito Zaplan, who owned a thriving construction firm, SM needs at least 10 hectares of lands to build a mall.

Zaplan recently told this paper that he is interested to host SM in Brgy. Maningding, Sta. Barbara where he just constructed a swanky P32 million municipal hall that overlooks the national highway.

Another chief executive who wants to host SM is Calasiao town mayor Mark Roy Macanlalay who just allowed SM Mall rival’s Robinson to build its giant retail store at Brgy. San Miguel there. 

According to SMPHI website, SM plans to build a US$47.96 million three storey mammoth mall in Dagupan City. The giant retail store is believed to be bigger than SM Pampanga and Baguio City.

It shall include a department store, supermarket, restaurants, and fast food outlets, boutiques and shops, movie houses, offices and storage units, sanitary facilities, and wide parking facility.

In an interview with this paper years ago, then Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim said that SM-Dagupan would generate 5,000 jobs and become a multiplier effects to other businesses in the city.