By Eric Garafil
When former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo set foot in Clark Freeport Zone late last year as the newly appointed Presidential Adviser on Clark Flagship Programs and Projects, it was a homecoming of sorts.
The Clark Freeport Zone was, after all, her creation when she was President.
The crowd of officials and employees of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) could not hide their excitement when Macapagal-Arroyo, who also served as first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, held a dialog with them in a meet-and-greet last December together with local government officials and businessmen.
The story of Clark Freeport Zone started during the administration of then President Fidel Ramos when he declared in a presidential proclamation that Clark will serve as the future site of a “premier” civilian international airport with a 14-million passenger capacity by 1998. His plan, however, did not come to fruition as projected in 1998.
When Arroyo assumed the presidency, she envisioned to make Clark not only a passenger hub for international travelers but a center for economic activity in Central Luzon.
She paved the way for Clark airport’s rehabilitation and expansion to accommodate more than 2 million passengers annually. Its expansion was completed in 2008.
In order to attract more local and foreign investments in the area, she then signed into law Republic Act No. 9400 which created the Clark Freeport Zone (CFZ) from the Clark Air Base which was separate from the then already existing Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ).
Today, the two zones are sometimes collectively called the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone.
After more than 15 years, Arroyo’s CFZ is not just home to a premier international airport but the site of tremendous economic growth that is expected to rival Metro Manila.
The main driver of such tremendous growth is not only the Clark International Airport but also the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), a 93.77 km-long expressway that was conceptualized, constructed and opened during the administration of Arroyo.
It was built to provide a more efficient transport system between and among the growth corridors in Luzon, namely the Subic Bay Freeport, Clark Freeport Zone and the Central Technopark in Tarlac, Bataan, Metro Manila and Calabarzon.
It was funded under a loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which called the P34.1 billion project “the highest quality highway ever built in the country.” Two years after its opening in 2008, the SCTEX has generated P625 million in toll revenues in 2010 alone with nine million vehicles passing the expressway.
The world-class airport facilities, reduced travel time and the opening of an efficient and reliable road network in and out of Clark due to the SCTEX have been seen as the reasons why foreign investments have flocked to Clark since 2008.
In 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Clark recorded the highest increase in approved foreign investments at 19.6 percent with P245 billion in total investments.
The Clark Main Zone covers 4,400 hectares including the former Clark Air Base when it was designated a Freeport Zone in 2007. As it was expanded to cover other areas of Pampanga and Tarlac, the whole Clark development, including the CSEZ, is now a sprawling 32,000-hectare development, almost half the size of Singapore.
Today CFZ is composed of four major developments, the Clark Freeport Zone, Clark Global City, Clark International Airport and New Clark City.