The Clark National Food Hub (CNFH) is lifting off. The contracts that were recently signed by the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Food Terminal Inc (FTI) and the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) are fuelling its takeoff from the ground.
The DA, its attached bureau the FTI, is shelling out ₱4 billion for the project. This project on a 40-hectare land in areas managed by CIAC brings enormous benefits like the 2,500 direct jobs it will create. The ultimate benefit is not just having an agro-industrial hub for food production, harvesting and processing, storage and warehousing, import-export facilitation – the list goes on, even wholesale and retail activities. The end result is improved nation’s economy.
The CNFH has been in the drawing board of CIAC and it is one of the agency’s priority projects. It was first broached by former CIAC President Arrey Perez when he led the creation of a blueprint for Clark’s 2,200-hectare aviation complex.
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The CNFH is part of the seven flagship projects drawn by Perez and is now also being pursued by the current management of the state-run firm led by President Joseph Alcazar. One of the prime movers in CIAC also is CIAC Director Rommel Santiago and the New Business Ventures Unit headed by Issa Feliciano.
Just as a lot of people thought that the CNFH will just go out the window (along with other flagship projects) when Perez left CIAC for a very prestigious and high paying job in the private sector, things got even better. While it was no way planned, Perez’s return to government service – especially as DA Undersecretary – paved the way for this project that will accrue to enormous benefits. First to Clark, then the local communities then add the Central and Northern Luzon regions and ultimately, the whole country.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. is all out too when it comes to supporting projects like food hubs. He has ordered the FTI to have Clark’s food hub to be partially opened by 2027.
Tiu Laurel is even so humble acknowledging the efforts of his lieutenants like Perez. A press release from his office states: “Tiu Laurel cited Perez’s previous experience helping develop New Clark City, including its road network and key buildings delivered ahead of schedule, to help keep the food hub on its accelerated timeline.”
The good secretary acknowledges the forte and contributions of Perez in his BCDA days who, like his former boss in BCDA and now Secretary of DPWH, had worked so hard towards implementation and completion of projects that lead to nation building. These include the New Clark City, the SCTEX, the new Clark International Airport. These three major projects alone had spurred our country’s economy and status.
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Tiu Laurel said the project is intended to close a critical gap between farm production and markets, where inefficient logistics erode farmers’ earnings, discourage private investments, and increase costs for consumers.
“We cannot build a modern agriculture sector if our farmers can produce more but cannot get their products to markets efficiently and profitably,” Tiu Laurel said. “Today, we give this project the foundation to move from paper to pavement.
The DA chief said the Mega Food Hub is central to Marcos’s vision of a more modern and food-secure Philippine agriculture sector. “And this is more than just a campaign promise. For President Marcos, it is a covenant with the Filipino people, especially those who feed the nation every day,” he said.
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I remember that when Clark’s airport was privatized, it somehow led to a dilemma for CIAC. I remember previously writing a column piece that jokes around the name of the agency and how government should rename the agency into plainly Clark International Corporation (dropping the “Airport” there) as it no longer had an airport to operate.
And just like what Perez pushed for in his CIAC days, it is the aviation complex that matters and not just the airport alone. And so the concept, branding and actual realization now of the Clark Aviation Capital (CAC).
People are now realizing how vital and how beneficial the CAC is, with its component projects like the food hub now falling into place. It was more than just a branding and a repackaging of the aviation complex. It is a realization of a vision and a plan that are now coming out of the drawing boards – from sketches to reality.
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