Japanese government to bankroll SCTEX extension to Aurora

BALER, Aurora , Philippines  – The plan to extend the Subic-Clark Expressway to this province has been given a major boost after the Japanese government pledged to bankroll its construction.

Sen. Edgardo Angara told The STAR that the change in the government of Japan from former Prime Minister Taro Aso to Prime Minister Yukio Hato­yama whose Democratic Party won the elections in July by a landslide, has not changed the Japanese government’s position regarding the SCTEX-Aurora extension project.

“That’s the beauty of the Japanese government. They will change their leaders but not their economic policies and directions,” he said.

Angara noted that Aso earlier committed to finance the SCTEX extension from La Paz, Tarlac to Rizal, Nueva Ecija and to Aurora to effectively cut travel time from four to six hours.

He said that Aso made the commitment during President Arroyo’s state visit to Japan in June where the senator was part of her official delegation. During the meeting with Mrs. Arroyo and Angara, Aso even remarked that the extension project would extend “all the way to the constituency of Sen. Angara in Aurora.”

Public support for the 68-year-old Aso eroded since he took office last year following a series of flip-flops over policies as Japan struggled with its worst recession in 60 years and is now hovering around 20 percent. The Democratic victory in the lower house election ended a half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party of Aso.

The 93.77-kilometer, four-lane SCTEX is considered as the country’s longest expressway, envisioned as a backbone of development in Central Luzon. A flagsip project of the Bases Conversion Development Authority, it runs through the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales and interconnects three major Central Luzon economic zones – Central Techno Park in Tarlac, Clark Freeport Zone and Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Once extended to the province, it would be interconnected to the Aurora Special Economic Zone in Casiguran town in northern Aurora.         – Manny Galvez