| Northern Luzon, Philippines Poro Point Special Economic & Freeport Zone Mixed-use Waterfront Tourism, Cruise Terminal, Commercial & Residential Development Plan |  |
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Poro Point's site location, near San Fernando
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Poro Point is the site of the former
US
military base Wallace Air Station and the location of a major Voice of America
transmitting station in the Pacific.
This 236 hectare seaport site is currently overseen by the Bases Conversion Development
Authority (BCDA), the national governmental agency responsible for
converting to commercial use all former In 2003 management functions for both the BCDA and its various subsidiaries were separated to insure that the necessary management attention and focus could be given to this initiative, thus the Poro Point Management Corp was created to serve this function. Poro Point's "Freeport" Status was affirmed by the national government by Republic Act 9400 in March 2007, thus officially entitling the area Poro Point Special Economic and Freeport Zone.
Located on the
western side of Luzon island, Poro Point has not only
an important natural deepwater harbor but also has major geographical
advantages due to its close proximity to the Since the early 1990's, the seaport
has been envisioned by BCDA and the
local towns in the region to become the major hub of a multimodal
transport system for northern Luzon. This includes transforming the port into an
international container port, converting the previous military airport
to commercial uses and connecting these as part of a regional system
which also incorporates the Northern Luzon Railway and the existing
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This regional public-private development project has central importance to the future development of the region as local and national groups supporting Poro Point believe that the development of an international port will spur the economic development of nearby provinces La Union, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and the Cordillera Autonomous region. Two years after the last American ship departed from
Subic Bay in 1992, 1994 saw the creation of JPDC, the John Hay-Poro
Point Development Corp. JPDC was established to oversee the combined
development of Camp John Hay, a mountainous ecological resource 5,000
feet above sea level in In 1997 the Philippine Ports Authority transferred this key 16 hectare seaport to the BCDA where it underwent renovation to augment its warehousing and transshipment capabilities. This was followed the next year when JPDC also took over the management of the San Fernando airport from the Air Transportation authority, thus completing the the final elements of the transportation hub needed for creating a major logistics and transshipment center for the growing South China Sea region. To enhance transport access to Poro Point and the region, in 2007 the BCDA allocated P600 million for development, upgrading and expansion of the San Fernando to world-class aviation standards thus enabling it accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus 320 and the Boeing 737. |
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A variety of preliminary master plans and development proposals from a various competing investor and consulting groups (including the author) were proposed to BCDA during the period from 1995 until 2003, when a final plan (a draft version shown above) by a competing more politically advantageous development group was selected. Note: during 1995 and 1996 - Michael Cobb was principle planning and development advisor to the L & M MAXCO, Inc,/Makati Development Corp group, in Makati city, a group of commercial property developers and construction firms operating in the Philippines and other areas of Asia and the Pacific. Therefore, after many years of false starts, in 2003 management functions for both BCDA subsidiaries (Camp John Hay and Poro Point) were separated to give attention and focus to the development of each site, and thus the umbrella Poro Point Management Corporation was formed. Unfortunately, the Poro Point story, has taken on the characteristics of many major projects in the developing world, where various private investment groups, vying for development rights of key projects, become entangled within the webs of national political changes, shifting alliances and higher project risks and uncertainties. Although there has been some progress in attracting hotel development in the area, for key elements of the Poro Point development, these shifting political winds in turn have led to various legal and jurisdictional confrontations among key governmental entities. Unfortunately these conflicts appear to be continuing today (late 2007) - some thirteen years after the promising beginnings.
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