Press Release - Cayetano, Alan: Senate Bill No. 2647 under Committee Report No. 250

AN ACT STRENGTHENING THE BASES CONVERSION AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7227, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "THE BASES CONVERSION AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1992", AS AMENDED

Sponsors: Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano/ Sen. Mark A. Villar

For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. 'Yan po ang nasa Jeremiah 29:11 at yan po ay isang propetang pinaniniwalaan ng mga Muslim, Hudyo at ng Kristiyano. I like Mister President narrating, explaining, declaring that verse. Because it tells us that the Almighty has a plan. But more than that, it teaches us that there can be no plan without a vision.

Quite a long time ago the Americans came to the Philippines and we have to give it to them and to their military. Marunong silang pumili ng pu-puwestuhan ng kanilang mga facilities. Whether we talk about Fort McKinley na naging Fort Bonifacio sa Taguig. Whether you talk about the air base in Pasay, whether you talk about Clark, Subic, you talk about Baguio City or La Union or even the areas in Visayas and Mindanao, marunong pumili po ang mga Amerikano. These areas once thought about to be purely for military defense security purposes found a win-win during the time of a military officer who became president, President Ramos.

It's been particularly special to the City of Taguig because the development of Fort Bonifacio sparked a new central business district. Nagbigay po ito ng venue para sa vision ng Panginoon sa aming city. Before the pandemic, there was a twin focus by the Duterte administration which was to clean up Boracay and also develop Clark so that we can decongest Metro Manila. Halos lahat po ng leaders from Bulacan, Tarlac, Pampanga, Central Luzon supported that. Katabi ko po si former Majority Leader Joel Villanueva. He was very supportive of that.

Mister President, ang naging decision ng dating pangulo ay huwag payagan magbenta ng lupa sa loob ng Clark. I saw the logic personally as his running mate, as a senator and even as a DFA secretary. During that time, I told him that there were many ways to skin a cat. I pointed at Pasig, Rizal and the Ortigas family. As you know