SMC Starts Construction of Agro-Industrial Tourism Industry

 

        CREATES INITIALLY 700 OF THE 3,000 JOBS FOR PANGASINAN

BY JHONA LYN C.ABULENCIA and MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

SAN FABIAN, Pangasinan – Giant San Miguel Corporation (SMC) will start the construction of its multi-billion peso ago-industrial and tourism industry middle of this year that will provide an initial of 700 jobs out of the up to the 3,000 targeted employees in the Forth Congressional District of Pangasinan.

Mayor Constante Agbayani told this newspaper that the mammoth projects will start its construction of a feed mill first at the 300 to 500 hectares lands owned by SMC in Barangay Bolasi here.

“It’s a $1 Billion (P49 Billion) project,” he said.

ECONOMICS and Political “High Priests” in the Fourth Congressional District of Pangasinan have collaborated to create a gargantuan employment juggernaut after giant San Miguel Corporation decided to build a multi-billion peso agro-industrial and tourism industry middle of this year. It will provide an initial of 700 jobs out of the up to the 3,000 targeted employement mostly hired from the jobless in the four towns one city’s District. These political and economics brass who interceded for the creation of the job behemoth are San Fabian Mayor Constante “Danny” Agbayani (top photo clockwise), President, and Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang, and District Congressman Christopher “Toff” de Venecia.

Former Speaker Joe de Venecia, the father of the District Representative Christopher de Venecia, said that business tycoon Ramon Ang, president, and chief operating officer of San Miguel Corporation told him that SMC will be building a pier, cement grinding plant, Jetty and Petron Tanks, LPG Farm as well as Grains Terminal, feed mill, poultry processing plant, a slaughterhouse, restaurants for tourists and residents, a hotel and a recreation cum commercial center here.

Agbayani cited that the giant corporation will be paying its business and real property taxes by P40 million yearly to the public coffer here that will commence within three years of the corporation’s full operation.

“That P40 million is huge as it would become the goose that lays the golden egg for the coastal town just like the P200 million and P29 million business and real properties taxes the towns of Sual and Sta. Barbara, respectively, get from  Team Sual Corporation (TSC) and San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Ginebra San Miguel and RC Cola annually,” a political kibitzer of this newspaper opined upon hearing the interview by its writer with Mayor Agbayani in his office here.

SMC is a multinational publicly listed conglomerate holdings and the Philippines' largest corporation in terms of revenue, with thousands of employees in over 100 major facilities throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It finally decided to build its second brewery in northern Luzon.

Endowed with its mountainous area, a beautiful beach, and proximate to a national high way, SMC has added a comparative advantage based on the strategical location of this rustic town.

In the July 18, 2019 ground breaking ceremony attended by the Mayor, officials of this town and SMC in Barangay Bolasi Director and the President of San Miguel Brewery Inc. Roberto Huang declared that the completion of the agro-industrial and tourism industry in less than two years will allow us to move SMC’s products to our Northern Luzon customers at a more efficient pace.

The pandemic’s Corona Virus Disease-19 seems to delay the target date by Huang as the Mayor here recently said that construction of one of its projects will start middle of this year.

“We are not just a company of expert brewers and producers of quality products and services but we are your dependable partner towards progress”.

He said the new brewery here will have a full capacity of two million hectoliters.

 “This move signifies that we at SMB believe that as our business grows so is our contribution to countryside development, and in this case, the development of the municipality of San Fabian,” Huang narrated.

Congressman de Venecia exhorted his constituents to submit their applications at his congressional office at 271 AB Fernandez Ave, Downtown District, Dagupan City (near Chowking) because the SMC has no office yet in Pangasinan to accept the intention of the job seekers.

Meanwhile, Agbayani told this newspaper that the access highway SMC President and CEO Ang requested to connect the mountainous part of this first class town to the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Express Highway (TPLEX) in the Fifth Congressional District or Eastern Pangasinan will be classified by the Sangguniang Bayan (Legislative Body) as an industrial and agricultural zone.

The urgent approval of the northern barangays here will buttress the multiplier effects created by the SMC plant in Brgy. Bolasi for the employment of the people.

Agbayani said that Congressman de Venecia lobbied for the funding of this highway in Congress for the Department of Public Works & Highway to construct a road project hat will connect Barangays: Binday, Ambalangan-Dalin, Colisao, Gomot, Inmalog, Bigbiga, and Bolaoen to complement the zone.

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How Other Mayors Create Economics Opportunities to People

Ex-Spkr Cayetano Barnstorms P'gasinan, Gives Financial Aid to Poor

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano would not delve thoroughly on my poser as I hit his former colleagues at the House of Senate - whom former Speaker Panty Alvarez derisively called Mabagal na Mataas na Kapulungan (Slowpoke House of Senate) - were compromised by the lobby monies of Filipino owned corporations that disliked competition with foreign owned rival businesses to the still un-acted since time immemorial Amended Public Service Acts (Bill No. 78) passed by the House of Representatives when Cayetano was still the Top Whip of the August Chamber.

“Well, siguro it’s the time for unity. Kaya ako, I’d rather not criticize any institution at this point in time. But yes, there are urgent legislation na kailangan gumalaw,” he told me during his visit last Friday in Dagupan City for the distribution of grocery items and shelling out generously P500 bill for the “taxi fare” and “pang Jollibee” to each of the more than a thousand of the ecstatic barangay health workers famously known with its acronym’s BHW, nutrition scholars, and service point officers.

 Damn, that was more or less P1 Million if the grocery stuffs each cost too P500.

SAVOIR FAIRE. Former House of Representatives’ Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano (standing) gives his savoir faire to thousand of the “ecstatic” barangay health workers (BHWs), nutrition scholars, and service point officers in Dagupan City, Pangasinan when he “barnstormed” the coastal city by giving financial aid and bags of grocery items the media estimated to worth more or less P1 million. Seated behind the Taguig-Pateros Congressman and former Senator is (from left to right) City Administrator Vlad Mata, Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim, Taguig City Representative Lany Cayetano (spouse of the former Speaker), City Councilor Celia Lim (mother of the Hizzoner), former City Councilor and Actress Maybelyn dela Cruz- Fernandez. Those luminaries who are not in the photo are National Dairy Authority Director Ralph Du, City Councilor Michael Fernandez, and Special Assistant to the Hizzoner’s Red Erfe Mejia. Photo by Mortz C. Ortigoza 

“Mga taong ang qualifications ay “mahaba ang pasensiya at mabilis tumakbo” sa pagtulong sa barangay,” he humored the workers in-front of him and under the snazziest white canvas covered court city plaza while his amused spouse and Taguig City Congresswoman Lany Cayetano, Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim, National Dairy Authority Director Ralph Du, City Administrator Vlad Mata (ramrod in his Lieutenant Colonel Reserved Marine’s camouflage), City Councilor Celia Lim ( the mommy of the Mayor), Special Assistant to the Hizzoner’s Red Erfe Mejia, City Councilor Michael Fernandez and spouse the actress and former city councilor Maybelyn dela Cruz - Fernandez where seated behind him.

“We used to buy stuffs at your Davao Fruits (stall),” the dapper Director Du told me when I bumped into him and Mejia as they egress with Mayor Lim from the City Museum and before Cayetano’s savoir faire with the hoi polloi.
ng ang qualifications ay “mahaba ang pasensiya at mabilis tumakbo” sa pagtulong sa barangay,” he humored the workers in-front of him and under the snazziest white canvas covered court city plaza while his amused spouse and Taguig City Congresswoman Lany Cayetano, Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim, National Dairy Authority Director Ralph Du, City Administrator Vlad Mata (ramrod in his Lieutenant Colonel Reserved Marine’s camouflage), City Councilor Celia Lim (the mommy of the Mayor), Special Assistant to the Hizzoner’s Red Erfe Mejia, City Councilor Michael Fernandez and spouse the actress and former city councilor Maybelyn dela Cruz - Fernandez where seated behind him.

By the way, my son Jigger brought one kilo per plastic bag of Davao Class-A Pomelos where I gave - of course for free hahaha! - Cayetano and each of his staff led by P.R Women Ofel M. Rodeles and Mae Casabar and Mayor Lim.

***

Was the eloquent sartorially elegant and now slimmer Cayetano ingratiating with the BHWs, city hall workers, and the members of the Fourth Estate whom some of them he dined earlier at a prominent seafood house in the coastal city because the senatorial race showed he was at No.6 (49.33 % of the respondents) at the polls?

It was done by  data analytics firm’s WR Numero Research and published last February 1, 2022 by the Philippine Star Newspaper for the Top 20 wannabes topped by Sorsogon Gov. Francis Escudero ( 64.6 %) and Sen. Joel Villanueva (56.6%) at Numbers 1 and 2 respectively and where Representatives Michael Defensor (42.7%) and Lito Atienza (40%) at Nos 11 and 12.

A village health worker (2nd from left) receives a dole-out from former Senator Cayetano. The recipient is flanked by the solon and Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim.

“Watch Mark Villar (President Rodrigo Duterte’s only Cabinet Secretary who clings at No. 16) but spike up in the campaign trail and the vaunted financial juggernaut of his family to pay those expensive television election ads,” I told Ofel in Bisaya who used to be the P.R person of then Manny Villar.

Yellow Party er Liberal Pary high priest reelective Senator Mr. Sharon Cuneta (Sen. Francis Pangilinan) settled poorly at No. 15 (36 %) of the respondents and is doomed to emulate fellow L.P reelective Senator Bam Aquiono who loss in the 2019 Election.

***

Here’s what Alan Peter -who said he and Vlad Mata kept their secrets in the University of the Philippines when they were students - told us selected media men who covered his generosity (he done it for the various sectors before the 2016 National Election where he ran for the Vice Presidency under Rodrigo Duterte) to the city government’s workers.

“That’s why naglagay na kami sa Bayanihan – 2 ng pondo para doon, nade-delay lang. So kami sa maliit naming paraan, sa grupo namin na mga Congressman nag ambagan and then iyong ibang community leaders nagbibigay. We just want to show government that kailangan ng bayanihan. but ang malaking pera talaga nasa gobyerno. We will continue to go around sa abot ng makakaya and tumulong ng konti, we could just send it pero nakikita po namin na nakakataas ng moral pag nakikita nila na ang mga officials nila are there for them, naiintindihan ang problema nila”.

Bayanihan -2 is the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act officially designated as Republic Act No. 11494. It is a law  enacted in September 2020 granting President Duterte additional authority to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.

Cayetano added that he was zealous on the ten thousand pesos he wanted to give to every Pinoy family to help them cope with the unabated rise in the prices of basic commodities.

****

I should be asking the former Speaker a lot of questions but I deemed it urgent to ask him “this Life and Death” poser about the economics fate of the Flips, er, Filipinos on the procrastination and the perceived vulnerabilities of the members of the Senate to be susceptible to the bribe from the local big businesses of hundreds of millions of pesos for their reelection bids.

These bids are translated into the very expensive election ads on TV, free planes and choppers as they barnstorm the jungle asphalt cities and the boondocks in the archipelago.

Arrays of bags and cartoons of groceries for the hoi polloi of Dagupan City.

Our pathetic export figure - where we are at the cellar among the ASEAN-6 - can be blamed to the inaction of the Senators since the time of President Benigno Aquino and the stints of Speakers Alvarez, Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, and Speaker Alan Cayetano.

Are we a Nation of Losers? Kahit sa attraction of foreign tourists before the dreaded pandemic’s COVID- 19 rampaged in the country we were at the tail-end against Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia in snaring the monies of these folks.

Basahin ang data (in billions of dollars) I got from Globaledge.MSU.Edu sa ilalim para mamulat sa hubad na katotohanan:

1. Singapore’s Total Exports (2019)        U.S $390,331,757,374

2. Vietnam’s Total Exports (2019)                  $264,610,322,69

3. Malaysia’s Total Exports (2019)                 $238,088,652,110

4. Thailand’s Total Exports (2019)                 $233,674,439,906

5. Indonesia’s Total Exports (2019)               $167,002,880,981

6. Philippines’ Total Exports (2019)               $70,926,674,490

Blamed our pathetic export figures in 2019 and even decades before  because foreign direct investment (FDI) would not come here --we blamed the inaction of the Mabagal na Mataas na Kapulungan. 

Was it all about the lobby and campaign funds as the reason for our Senators’ recalcitrance not to open the economy to the more efficient 100 percent owned FDIs that will spike jobs and revenues for our people and the government?

Read my other blog/column:

Sen. Poe: Power ng TV Ads, Pagpasa ng PSA

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Lingayen-Binmaley Hub Threats to Dagupan’s Entertainment District

By Jhona Lyn C. Abulencia and Mortz C. Ortigoza

After a recent birthday party of a matriarch of an illustrious family in a central Pangasinan town held in the snazziest popular hotel in the gargantuan province, grandchildren - who came as far as the plush subdivision in Metro Manila - of the celebrant have been overheard to be badgering a cousin to jump into their vehicle and ride gung-ho to a full of ambiance entertainment hide away near the bay walk that stretches the national highway along the coastal areas of Lingayen and Binmaley’s towns.

“Saan iyong sinasabi ninyong magandang gimikan na bar? Paulo, a resident of Valle Verde in Pasig City, asked his cousins who were young urban professional colloquially called yuppies.

Bali-Bali Beach Bar (Credit to photo owner).

“Sa Lingayen malapit lang dito kaya kong e drive iyan ng 15 minutes,” Clarisse, a pretty law student of Ateneo de Manila University who drives a slick Toyota Fortuner’s sports utility vehicle, retorted

The watering hole the five cousins wanted to fancy could either be Tres Marias Sports Bar & Resort, The Yellow Beach Villas, Above Sea Level, Bali Bali Beach Bar, Norseman, Purok Marcela Beach Resort,El Puerto Marina Beach Resort & Spa, or other resort hosted by the two neighboring coastal towns.

Indeed, the stretches of the bay walk became a magnet for promenaders where other patronize too the entertainment businesses there nestled in the accretion of the sands and soils brought by the Lingayen Gulf and the river from the Benguet Province. These spots continue to sprout like mushrooms and positioned to replace the glittering chrome neon lights blinking entertainment bars’ hub in Arellano Street in the nearby Dagupan City that cater since time immemorial to customers in and out of Pangasinan.

Above Sea Level Bar (Credit to photo owner).

The capital town's mayor collaborated the perception of this newspaper that the municipality will become an attraction to folks because of the draws it can offers.

“Yes, I can see that Lingayen will benefit the spill- over of the urban centers like Dagupan, Alaminos, even Mangatarem, or Camiling (Tarlac). So, if you’ll look at Lingayen, it’s a convergence plus the fact that it’s the capital own of the great province of Pangasinan. As the capital town, dito ang provincial center. No. 2 it is the educational center. Alam ninyo ba na dito nag-aral si FVR (former Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos) noong araw? No. 3 it is the historical center because dito naglanding si (infamous Chinese Pirate) Limahong noong 1574. Dito rin naglanding si (Pacific Supreme Military Commander General Douglas) MacArthur noong 1945. And it is also a commercial center and many other benefits. Kaya I can foresee a fast growing community in this municipality. And we intend to preserve all those heritage sites like for example the Casa Real as the first provincial capitol of Pangasinan so I labored to have that preserved,” narrated by Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil – a former nine years’ Congressman of the Pangasinan Second District.

Bataoil’s vaunted brain child bay walk that connects his town to neighboring Binmaley immediately “afflicted” by its wonder Pangasinan Fourth District Representative Christopher “Toff” de Venecia who replicated it to connect Dagupan City and San Fabian town.

“Kinonsult ako ni former (House of Representatives) Speaker (Jose) de Venecia. Kaya noong mabalitaan niya here and abroad iyong sprawling Lingayen Gulf Bay Walk’s covering Binmaley - Lingayen he called (Department of Public Works & Highway) District Engineer Boy Dion to also design a bay walk for Dagupan to San Fabian. Hinanapan naman ni Congresswoman Manay de De Venecia (ng funds) at pinagpatuloy naman ni (De Venecia’s son and incumbent Congressman) Toff kaya nagawa na iyong San Fabian Bay Walk at meron na rin sa Bonuan”.

THE 2.5 BILLION project according to the Department and Public Works & Highway that involves the construction of a four-lane with biking and jogging lanes six-kilometer by-pass highway that will connect Lingayen, Pangasinan to Dagupan City. Completion of work will be next year. (DPWH Photo)

Bataoil revealed the genesis of the renowned bay walk.

He interceded for it on year 2018 in the national government and now the construction of the state of the art highway, overpass, and bridges are nearing completion as they inch to Dagupan City. The DPWH needs to hurdle the creation of a highway at a village in Binmaley that will integrate it to Barangay Pugaro, Dagupan City and bridge it to the mainland of the City.

“Malapit na ang Binmaley sa Barangay Buenlag. Barangay Sabangan na lang para mai-connect, the next barangay is Pugaro of Dagupan. Pugaro to Bonuan, diretso na ang baywalk doon”.

According to a report by DPWH Region -1 Director Ronnel M. Tan, he cited that Secretary Mark Villar said that the P2.5-billion project involves the construction of a four-lane, six-kilometer by-pass road made of portland concrete cement pavement which starts at the intersection of Pangasinan-Zambales Road and Lingayen - Labrador Diversion Road, traversing Lingayen Proper to Barangay Poblacion, in the municipality of Binmaley.

Purok Marcela Beach Resort.

Also included is the construction of four bridges, installation of road safety devices, drainage, slope protection structures, and an overpass. The road is seen to alleviate traffic congestion and will benefit an average daily traffic count of 18,942 vehicles.

Tan said the mega project will be completed by next year as scheduled by the agreement with the contractors.

“So noong meron pa kaming Pork Barrel na mga Congressmen, sabi ko gusto kong magamit yung Pork Barrel dito sa Second District in a very useful way. I approached Governor (Amado “Pogi”) Espino (III), tinanong ko kung saan niya gustong gamitin yung PDAP (Priority Development Assistance Fund) natin the pork barrel. He said anything about tourism. Ready na ako noon para akong boy scout. Pinakita ko sa kanya iyong plano ng DPWH. Sir do you like this? he asked, “What is that?’. Baywalk proposed project - Lingayen Bay Walk,” Bataoil expounded.

He told the brass of the DPWH there would be a big potential to Lingayen and the sleepy town of Binmaley because of the absence of an effective access of the people to the beaches there.

“Sa recommendation ng DPWH sabi nila gawin nating multi-purpose pavement structure which will not be just a baywalk but an alternate coastal road para kung ma-traffic sa national road dito ang alternate and it’s really happening”.

Bataoil said that aside from the four-lane highway for vehicles, the 15 kilometer by-pass road has bike and jogger lanes too making it a six-lane state of the art highway.

He moreover added the billions of pesos mammoth highway would be a linchpin too of attracting more human traffic was part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Build-Build-Build Program.

When asked if he can emulate the river cruise of Loboc in Bohol as an added attraction to the tourism aesthetics of Lingayen and swashbuckle it as one of the tourism chutzpah in the country, Bataoil, a former three-star police general, cited the town’s Limahong Channel where he eyes a river cruise just like at Loboc River in Bohol.

The Limahong Channel was where the Chinese pirate Limahong proceeded north to Pangasinan when foiled of his attempt to establish a colony on the shore of Manila Bay. Pursued by the Spanish colonizers, he dug a channel in Domalandan, Lingayen that served as his escape route towards the China Sea (Jane Dacumos). Limahong built up a reputation for his constant raids to ports in Guangdong, Fujian, and southern China. He was noted to have twice attempted, and failed, to invade the Spanish City of Manila  in 1574 (Wikipedia)

The Yellow Beach Villas (Credit to photo owner).

“Dito napakalapit na sa Manila, hindi na mag-eeroplano. May TPLEX (Tarlac -Pangasinan-La Union Express Highway) pa tayo. Sabi ko magki-click itong Limahong River Cruises because malapit and the historical backgrounds. And we can promote many things like our rice cakes, our folk songs. Maraming talent ang Pangasinan. If there will be some investors who will know the projection of development for Lingayen”.

The mayor told this newspaper that his town has an annual appropriation budget of P300 million for this year.

Is the town looms to be a new city in Pangasinan after the mayor maximizes the potential of the coastal town?

(Because of space’s constraint in our newspaper, Bataoil response will see print on the next issue of our paper. Moreover, this newspaper lauds the willing cooperation of the Mayor for this interview that he even showed in his office a video footage of the progress of the billions of pesos highway, over pass, and bridges. When this newspaper met Binmaley Mayor Sam Rosario in front of the municipal hall he did not allow even a minute of an interview for his reaction on the tourist draws in his town. He said he had something to do).

The Yellow Beach Villas (Credit to photo owner).

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El Puerto Marina Beach Resort & Spa (Credit to photo owner)