SAN FERNANDO, La Union—The Poro Point Management Corp. is looking at the possibility of combining Freeport Zone and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) conditions at the Poro Point Freeport Zone.
In a briefing here on Friday, Poro Point Management Corp. (PPMC) President and CEO Florante S. Gerdan said this will allow Poro Point to extend the land area of the free port and still provide incentives to locators.
“Ang tinitignan namin ngayon is kung pwede ’yung combination ng Peza and Freeport kasi maliit kami so we wanted to get more lands outside, can we now have a combination of Peza and free port? So that’s being pursued,” Gerdan said.
The current land area of the free port is around 146 hectares. But because of ongoing court litigation, the free port has not been able to tap 50 hectares of its property.
Gerdan said the case is now being appealed at the Supreme Court. This is because the PPMC already lost its case based on the decisions made by the lower court and the Court of Appeals.
Meanwhile, Gerdan said other factors such as the need to find relocation for the Philippine Air Force and the issues in the development of the San Fernando Airport prevent the PPMC from maximizing
its potential.
Based on the plan drafted for the PPMC by Palafox and Associates, the development will create Cliff Side Homes at the current location of the Philippine Air Force.
The plan drafted by Palafox also included a possible reclamation area near the existing Porro Point seaport. The area will be patterned after Dubai’s “The Palm,” a reclamation project in the Middle East.
However, this reclamation plan is still considered by Gerdan as a “wish” project that the government needs to study first before being considered for implementation.
Meanwhile, the San Fernando Airport has already been included in the current pipeline of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.
Based on the PPP Center, the project is estimated to cost P8.1 billion, or $180 million. The feasibility study for the project is currently being done with a
transactional advisor.
However, Gerdan said the P8.1-billion cost could still change given that there are considerations in the expansion of the width of the runway for the airport.
Gerdan said the optimum width of the runway is 300 meters. This would allow major aircraft such as Airbus 320s and Boeing 737s to land.
But Gerdan said expanding the runway to 300 meters would displace all the residents in at least one barangay in San Fernando, La Union.
As an alternative, Gerdan said what is being studied now is the possibility of having the minimum requirement of 150 meters. If this is undertaken, it will lower the project cost for the San Fernando Airport to around P3 billion.
Meanwhile, Gerdan said the initial estimate for the plan, without the reclamation project and the development of the San Fernando Airport will cost P81 billion.
The whole development will be undertaken in five phases with the first phase costing as much as P34 billion. Phase 1 will be divided into Phase 1a and Phase 1b which have a total land area of 17.2 hectares and 34.67 hectares, respectively.
Phase 1a will have a leasable area of 8.92 hectares and non-leasable area of 8.28 hectares, while Phase 1b will have a leasable area of 18.79 hectares and non-leasable area of 15.88 hectares.
Phase 2 will have a total area of 14.04 hectares consisting of a leasable area of 5.94 hectares and non-leasable area of 8.1 hectares.
PPMC data also showed that Phase 3 will have a total area of 6.41 hectares with 5.55 hectares of leasable area and 0.86 hectares of non-leasable land.
Phase 4 and 5 will have total land areas of 18.38 hectares and 14.86 hectares, respectively. The leasable area in Phase 4 will be 12.68 hectares while the leasable area in Phase 5, 10.87 hectares.
The non-leasable areas in Phase 4 and 5 are 5.69 hectares and 3.99 hectares, respectively.