Calabarzon ‘one-stop shop’ for gov’t rises

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—A P2.5-billion facility, billed as a “one-stop shop” center of different regional government branches in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces), is now finished.

The six-story regional government center, the first of its kind built through the public-private partnership program, was inaugurated on Wednesday on a prime lot near South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) in Calamba City, Laguna.

Although still lacking fixtures like partitions and power and communication lines, two agencies—the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Economic and Development Authority—have signed lease contracts to hold office in the facility.

Space in the facility is being leased for P450 per square meter per month.

Josefina Castilla-Go, DILG regional director, said other government offices were expected to move in.

These include those of the Department of Tourism, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Pag-Ibig Fund and Land Bank of the Philippines, she said.

The six-story government center, inspired by Malaysia’s federal administrative center, Putrajaya, aims to house more than 20 regional government offices in one location.

Although most of the offices are in Calamba City, they occupy different buildings. Some regional offices, like those of the Commission on Elections, are still in Manila while others are in different parts of Laguna or Batangas.

Construction of the 1,000-square meter facility by the Malaysian firm Alloy MTD started last year on a 3-hectare lot in Barangay Mapagong that real estate firm Ayala Greenfield donated to the city government of Calamba.

Alloy MTD is an infrastructure company that used to operate SLEx.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who was a guest at the event, lauded the opening of the regional government hub that he said is a symbol of the Philippines’ future.

Having a modern government facility, he said, is one “of the best measures of success” of a country.