P4-B investment awaits Bataan town Avatar

By Ernie B. Esconde, Manila Times, 27 Feb 2020

PILAR, Bataan: More than P4 billion in investment is ready to flow into this historic town under an expansion program of the Freeport Area of Bataan (FAB), Mayor Carlos Pizarro Jr. said on Tuesday.

The mayor said clearing had started in the three seaside villages here where the project, tentatively named Bataan New Container Port City, would rise on 500 hectares of land adjacent to Manila Bay.

Ground works, he said, would begin in time for the completion and operation of the project in four years.

Pizarro said he had asked the developer to not cause dislocation in villages and to save the mangroves.

The development includes a golf course, the Escolta Heritage Building, the Giethoorn Village (like in The Netherlands), an aviary, a forest park, an executive village, an amusement and theme park, the Marina Hotel & Restaurant/Plaza, the Marina Bay, a light industrial eco-park, a medium industrial eco-park, port area, and warehouses.

Pizarro said the proponent wrote the FAB of its urgent desire to put up an economic zone outside Mariveles.

President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law on Aug. 30, 2019 a bill authored by Second District Rep. Jose Enrique Garcia 3rd expanding the Bataan freeport territory from Mariveles to all the other 10 towns and one city of the province.

FAB in Mariveles has more than 45,000 workers from 141 multi-national firms.

“The project will create thousands of jobs for Pilar and greatly increase our revenues,” the mayor said.

Pizarro said members of the Sangguniang Bayan of Pilar and Gov. Albert Garcia, among others, were ecstatic of the project

Pilar is the site of the Dambana ng Kagitingan or Shrine of Valor atop Mt. Samat where heavy fighting between Filipino-American and Japanese forces took place before Bataan fell on April 9, 1942.

It is the town next to Balanga City and is about 40 kilometers from Mariveles.