Best alternative to Metro Manila, Pampanga, gets P1.7B

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Pampanga Megalopolis Plan (PMP), which would convert the province into the “best alternative to Metro Manila,” has been allotted an initial P1.724 billion in the General Appropriations Act of 2018.

Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced this in a program on Thursday when architect Felino Palafox and Peter Suchianco of San Miguel Foundation turned over the final draft of the PMP to Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda.

The urban planning firm Palafox Associates designed the plan while the San Miguel Foundation provided P11 million to partly fund the one-year study.

San Miguel Corp. runs a brewery in this Pampanga capital. Palafox said the PMP required P200 billion in investments to build hard and soft infrastructure from the private and government sectors within 50 years. —TONETTE OREJAS