Ramon Ang, who was assigned by the late Danding Cojuangco to look after his interest at the San Miguel Corp. (SMC) owing to his being his loyal mechanic to the many luxury cars he had left behind when he fled posthaste in 1986 his and for being his pal in flying planes, has this bad habit of hyping all projects he is involved in, particularly now that his boss is no longer around.
Ang batted for dozens of projects, most of which have not been realized, and his concern about having good PR for SMC got a boost when he acted as the white knight to rescue the Philippine Daily Inquirer after then president Rodrigo Duterte went hammer and tongs against the newspaper that he claimed was going after his scalp. His commitment to CNN was not as good and, promptly, the Philippine affiliate of the global news network was unceremoniously shut down. Scuppered.
On July 1, 2024, the Inquirer ran editorial “A long-overdue (sic) airport,” which lionized Ang’s supposedly $15-billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA) and airport city projects envisioned by SMC in Taliptip, Bulakan, Bulacan, a fishing and farming town that was slowly being eaten by Manila Bay as sea levels rise, the same fate that has flustered the people of Obando, Bulacan and Hagonoy, Bulacan, where barangays are flooded during high tide. To prevent the sea from claiming a huge section of the Bulakan, the areas had to be poldered, protected by dikes or similar structures, or part of the sea is reclaimed.
Ang is terribly lucky as he benefits from the Bulacan Special Economic Zone and Freeport Act, or Republic Act No. 11999, which lapsed into law last June 13 as Malacanang retreated from its earlier decision to oppose the project, which has been resisted by Bulakenos and the people of Taliptip, the fishermen, farmers and fishpond owners and the landless farmers who were supposed to benefit from agrarian reform. Well, all of them were not on the table but they were on the menu, the prey to be lapped up by predators.
Of course, the resident economic Rasputin of the House of Representatives and longtime bachelor Rep. Joey Salceda had the biggest role in getting RA 11999 lapse into law after lawmakers made short shrift of the objections of Bulakenos and the opposition of ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, who said Ang’s special ecozone project “threatens to displace thousands of fisherfolk families and destroy vital marine ecosystems in Manila Bay. The voices of affected fisherfolk and environmental advocates must be heard and heeded.”
Inquirer’s editorial argued that the concerns of Castro and protesting residents are valid, yet it said that “SMC has vowed to address these concerns while the ecozone is being built. It is therefore incumbent upon the government and its agencies to ensure that the project’s proponent will actually undertake the measures needed to address the environmental issues—from the beginning to the completion of the airport and the ecozone.” Thus, it goads government to guarantee that environmental issues are resolved since it cannot be expected that SMC would resolve them out of the goodness of its heart. SMC planted the wrong mangrove tree species in Taliptip and bragged about it, to the laughter of environmentalists. The SMC project is a rentier venture that could see the construction of the first racetrack in the country for Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bugattis, Lotuses and other gas-guzzling beasts, aside from silos for SMC Foods, warehouses for the SMC coal business, power generating facilities and others.
By the way, how many may years would SMC perks last? And who told Ang and his surrogates, along with the Inquirer, that the airport with four runways, eight taxiways, and three passenger terminals with an annual capacity of at least 100 million passengers, would beat NAIA’s 32 million passengers? Clark International Airport (CIA), touted as the best thing that could happen to Central Luzon, has been suffering few arrivals and could not serve many routes. Of course, the Plaridel City Airstrip in Bulacan is a successful pilot training facility. As one wag said, “kahit magsanga-sanga pa ang mga expressways ni Ang sa Bulacan, mas malapit pa rin ang NAIA sa Maynila at NCR.”
Salceda and Ang are also counting chicks before the eggs are hatched. Salceda argued the SMC ecozone would be an economic boost to the country. “Within 10 years, this project has the potential to generate P200 billion in export-oriented revenues,” Salceda roared in one forum last year. At the peak of its potential, the Bulacan ecozone can generate investments worth $30 billion, P222.6 billion in land value appreciation, and a P10.4-billion increase in government revenues due to the widened tax base. Big words for a freelancing pundit whose many predictions never came to pass. Inquirer’s glowing editorial is akin to the unabashed PR support by the Philippine Star to Sen. Bong Go, whose every move is carried by the daily, complete with photos, and quotes about Go helping fire and disaster victims, along with those who troop to his Malasakit Centers, an additional bureaucratic layer for those seeking medical treatment. Does Manny Pangilinan know about this horror?
