MANILA, Philippines - From wasteland to greenland.
Then eventually, a whole new city, small though it maybe, yet complete with basic amenities for commerce and family leisure — a virtual paradise rising out of an erstwhile quaint and dormant town in northern Luzon.
That in a nutshell, is the master plan drawn up by Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. to transform a 300-hectare foreshore land in northwestern Lingayen into an ecotourism zone that meets world-class standards.
The project essentially involves putting together an 18-hole golf course, a marina, 21st century monorail, an industrial zone, a high-end residential area with a lovely beachfront, and possibly a runway that can accommodate large commercial aircraft.
So far, the project site has been cleared of substantial amounts of sand dunes and hostile bush plants called Aroma with whip-like thorn-bearing twigs and branches.
Espino, a visionary of his own class, discerns a futuristic beehive of economic and social activities through the piles of worthless dirt and weeds that used to dominate the area.
Early in his first term as governor in 2007-2010, he commanded a fleet of bulldozers, backhoes and dump trucks to clear the area. When the dust of ground work settled, residents in the area and visitors were amazed. They saw a vast track of flat land overlooking the scenic Lingayen Gulf.
Local and foreign investors started to see unlimited opportunities in the area. The proponent for a golf course went ahead than the others.
His dream has started to take shapes and colors. There is already a man-made lagoon the size of an Olympic swimming pool, golf green where weekend golfers could hone up their putting skills, and turf grass painstakingly planted by hired hands.
To do this, pockets of the so-called sterile black sand which hampers growth of turf grass and other required vegetation for a golf course had to be extracted and replaced with the much richer garden soil. Unfortunately, critics crassly viewed it as mining.
Somehow, Espino and his management team could not be dissuaded from pursuing their projects.
“Hopefully, this (eco-tourism zone) will be one of my legacies, a signature of my watch which, given a third term, will ultimately make my beloved Pangasinan the number one province in the country,” the governor said.
In time, a carpet of tender grass will cover the entire golf course even as construction of vertical structures has yet to begin in earnest pending the issuance of an environmental clearance certificate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
One of the prospective investors noted that the area was a perfect site for an 18-hole golf course, and Espino keenly took note of the suggestion.
Under the master development plan dubbed as “Pangasinan Aqua City Project,” a stepping jetty made up of floating dock with dual rotor wind turbine and a solar panel roof would also be set up, along with an aquatic house and a fish farm.
The monorail terminal and stepping jetties, along with other service facilities would line up along the Limahong Channel that cuts across the eastern part of ecotourism zone and dips into the Lingayen Gulf.
Fast rewind to 1998. Then President Fidel Ramos issued Proclamation 1258 declaring the foreshore land a government reservation site straddling the boundary of Barangays Sabangan, Estanza, Malimpuec, and Capandanan. However, nothing happened over the next nine years, and the project remained just a piece of paper.
Espino, who took over the provincial government in 2007, initiated a series of public consultations with officials of the affected barangays and their respective constituents.
On April 5, 2010, Ramos presided at the groundbreaking rite for the project with a ceremonial tee-off. The event was attended by provincial, municipal, barangay and DENR officials as well as prospective foreign investors.
Espino, who fully supports the public-private partnership program of President Aquino, wants this high-impact project completed within the next three years, saying “no amount of harsh and baseless criticisms can throw me off the track.”