New Pacific Coast City to decongest Metro Manila

BARANGAY UMIRAY, DINGALAN, Aurora – A new world-class metropolis that will serve as the most attractive alternative to the heavily congested Metro Manila is gradually taking shape in a sprawling 80,000 hectare area in the boundary of this coastal town and Infanta, Quezon overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Called the New Pacific Coast city (NPCC), the proposed metropolis is only 60 kilometers east of Manila, and is currently accessible by the Marikina-Infanta Highway.

The NPCC is envisioned to spur economic growth on the Pacific Coast and relieve pressure on Metro Manila. It will make new lands available for settlement, create an efficient new center of commerce and government and build transportation links to the so-called Eastern Luzon seaboard from Metro Manila and central Luzon, thus generating new innovative industries.

The development of the new megapolis is contained in a recently completed development master plan entitled "The Eastern Luzon Seabord Strategic Scheme (ELSSS)" and the "New Pacific Coast City" (NPCC) by the Green Square Properties and Resources, Inc. (GSPRI) and Green Circle Properties and Resources, Inc. (GCPRI).

The GSPRI and GCPRI, led by its president and chairman, lawyer Romero Roxas, commissioned the Robert Lamb Hart Planners, Architects and Landscape Architects and the group of internationally renowned Palafox Associates of Filipino architect Felino Palafox Jr. for the master planning and development strategy.

The implementation of the ELSSS-NPCC is now being undertaken in several phases up to 2020.

Roxas is a successful lawyer-businessman who is deeply involved in property development in the country. In joint ventures with other companies, Roxas took the task of developing his companies’ 1,000-hectare scenic property at the Taal Volcano Ridge in Tagaytay.

The NPCC has been declared a national flagship project during the term of former President Ramos. It was also declared a flagship project by his successor, then-President Estrada in a memorandum order he issued on Oct. 21, 1999 to Roberto Aventajado, presidential adviser on economic affairs and chairman of the presidential committee on flagship programs and projects. The memo directed Aventajado to "ensure the immediate resolution of all the issues and concerns for the immediate implementation of the project…"

On Jan. 27, 2000, then Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora signed on behalf of the President Proclamation 233 creating and designating the private domain in Umiray here and in Umiray, Nakar, Quezon as a Special Economic Zone and Tourism Estate to be known as the "Pacific Coast City Ecozone" pursuant to Republic Act 7916 or the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995. This was based on a January 10,2000 recommendation of then-Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz-Araneta.

Aventajado, in his memorandum-letter to the President described the NPCC as "three cities in one" – a resort city, a university city and an industrial city. "In combination, these diverse economies will create and physically envelope a central city economy, including a new capital district," he said in his letter.

Under the master plan study for the ELSSS and the NPCC, the 80,000-hectare area will host industrial cities, a government center, forest and wild life preserves, residential areas, a workers city, an educational city, a tourism center, a religious center, a movie capital and a sports center.