CLARK FREEPORT—After the successful staging of two sports events at the Parade Ground here, one of which attracted players from nine countries, more will be aggressively pushed by Clark Development Corp. (CDC) president and CEO Felipe Antonio Remollo.
Past top officials of the CDC dreamt big to create major economic development and activities at the sprawling 4,400-hectare free port, but some of them failed.
One of the recent ambitious projects that never took off was The Next Frontier at the Clark’s subzone. It faced stiff oppositions from various groups and Aetas.
Now comes the President Aquino-appointed Remollo, a lawyer and former three-term Dumaguete City mayor.
As soon as it was launched, Remollo’s sports tourism program got favorable support from the Department of Tourism (DOT), private businesses and groups, including Cebu City-based Charles Lim, whose firm Selracho Management Consultancy Services handles the public relations of Cebu Pacific Airline.
Appointed in May, Remollo hosted the Baseball Philippines Series 8. Then he promoted the PALS paintball tournament participated by players from Iran, Singapore, Japan, the United States of America, Australia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei and the Philippines.
“There is no life in Clark. We must put life into it starting with sports tourism,” Remollo told officials of the Alliance of Travel and Tour Agencies of Pampanga (Attap) and Hotel and Restaurant Association of Pampanga (HARP) in their meeting last week at the CDC.
Remollo said that the free port should not just be a haven for Clark locators that created about 61,000 jobs as of today. It should also be for sports activities that could attract local and foreign tourists, most of whom arrive at the DiosdadoMacapagal International Airport (DMIA).
“Practical,” said Attap president Gilda Padua in describing Remollo after their meeting to signify the group’s support to his project.
HARP president Susan Manansala also vowed to support Remollo’s project, which will “definitely benefit” the some 75 members of their association.
Padua was impressed when Remollo offered the CDC’s services to answer the need to have “presentable” tourists’ buses in Pampanga and Clark, offering smaller fees for the convenience of the 25 Attap members.
She informed Remollo that the Attap had to get buses from Metro Manila that costs P18,000 per day and per bus.
Remollo said they could offer a CDC tourist bus at “about P10,000 per day.”
“The approach of Remollo will be effective because they are feasible and beneficial to all, including small businesses in and around Clark. Sports tourism is a good start and more work should be done now to prepare Pampanga and Clark as promising and acceptable tourism area,” said Padua.
The Attap, HARP and other groups have long wanted to work with the state-owned firms—the CDC and the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) which operates the DMIA—to convince inbound passengers landing at the Clark airport to stay in Pampanga.
There is now an average of 80 international and local flights per week at the DMIA.
As of January to May this year, there are 155,043 outbound and 148,873 inbound passengers at the DMIA recorded by the CIAC.
CIAC president and CEO Victor Jose Luciano earlier told the BusinesMirror that “we must make people stay in Clark when there is a huge event such as the Hot Air Balloon festival,” which had been attracting thousands yearly and it was last held here from February 10 to 13 this year.
CDC tourism head Noemi Garcia disclosed that Remollo had planned to host a sports meet, which will simultaneously held during the next Hot Air Balloon festival, which was solely sponsored by the CDC in February.
Garcia said the CDC wants to host a mountain biking race in September. She added that other sports such as soccer, Frisbee, rugby and cricket, among others, would be held on a monthly basis.
Supersonics Services Inc. sales manager Albert Legaspi, wholesaler of Cebu Pacific tickets and other airlines for North and Central Luzon, said the disparity is not entirely seen in the number of arriving and departing passengers at the DMIA.
Legaspi disclosed that most foreign tourists, notably Malaysians from Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, stay in hotels at Clark or Angeles City after arriving “just to sleep overnight or stay for awhile” before going to Metro Manila where they will spend their time and money.
Legaspi, whose office is at the Marlim Mansion Hotel, Angeles City, said the DMIA is just an “entry point” before tourists go to their destinations in Metro Manila and other areas in Luzon.
“That’s reality and we must work now with the government in making them stay here. Sad to say, Pampanga is not ready for tourists in general. As disclosed by the Attap, they don’t even have a decent tourists’ bus for hire in Pampanga,” said Legaspi.
Legaspi, Padua, Attap members and Pampanga journalists were recently invited in Bangkok, Thailand, to promote the country which already attracted some 8 million tourists from January to May this year.
IN PHOTO -- FELIPE Antonio Remollllo, president and CEO of the Clark Development Corp. meets with with Gilda Padua (left) of the Alliance of Travel and Tour Agencies of Pampanga and Susan Manansala of Haro during their meeting last week. --RIC GONZALES
