Traders want to revive travel to Manila via Pampanga Bay

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – If travel between Manila and Pampanga or Bataan can be done via the Pampanga and Manila bays, why not do it?

The Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL), a group of influential businessmen, and officials of coastal towns in this province want to revive routes between Manila and this province via the Pampanga Bay and Manila Bay.

“If our plans do not miscarry, we will soon have ferries that will regularly travel between Pampanga or Bataan and Manila where we are proposing a dock at the SM Mall of Asia,” said ADCL president Renato Tayag.

The ADCL, however, first wants to fully rehabilitate swamps in the Pampanga Bay to complement plans to promote sea travel, noting that most swamps have already vanished.

“We have to develop Pampanga Bay as a haven of mangroves and sanctuary for our marine life. The mangroves themselves are an attraction. The bay itself could be a tourist destination and a base for aqua-business. This will serve as Pampanga’s gateway from the north via the open sea,” Tayag said.

In the pre-Spanish and early Spanish colonial times, the Pampanga Bay used to be a major route for commercial vessels from Manila and other countries trading with the coastal towns of Macabebe, Masantol, and Minalin.

From the bay, ships laden with goods made their way to interior towns such as Sasmuan, Candaba and Guagua through the then deep waters of the Pampanga River, now heavily silted by volcanic lahar and other debris.

“Once we have rehabilitated the Pampanga Bay, we will have ferry trips from Pampanga Bay to Corregidor Island in Bataan or from the coastal towns of Macabebe, Masantol, and Minalin via Pampanga Bay and Manila Bay to the SM Mall of Asia dock,” Tayag said.

He said this project would boost the economies of Pampanga’s coastal towns.

Provincial board member Ric Yabut, chairman of the provincial committee on environment, vowed to work for the allocation of funds for the rehabilitation project.

“Pampanga Bay has a huge potential to become an ecotourism destination and marine life trade center. Soon ferry trips and cruises in the Pampanga Bay to Corregidor and Manila Bay would be made available to tourists and traders alike,” ADCL said in a statement.

Among the other local leaders strongly pushing the project are provincial board member Nelson Calara, Masantol Vice Mayor Bajun Lacap, Minalin Vice Mayor Edgar Yambao, provincial agriculturist Dr. Mario Mangiliman, Department of Environment and Natural Resources director Remelio Atabay, DENR coastal management chief Jimmy Aberin, National Economic Development Authority economic specialist Marissa Aquino, and Minalin councilor John Juico.

Pampanga Bay, according to ADCL, runs along Masantol, Macabebe and Sasmuan and could provide access to other towns along the Pampanga River, which, however, has to be desilted.

“It is a sanctuary to one of nature’s most valuable resources – the mangroves,” it added.

“We need to clean the waters around Pampanga Bay first before we could even start to plant and propagate mangroves. Then, the mangroves, being a natural attraction to nature lovers, will serve as our rallying point for promoting Pampanga Bay as an ecotourism destination,” ADCL vice president Sonny Dobles said.