Here is an Executive Summary of a proposal – with the intensity and magnitude of “The Manhattan Project” -- that must be done soon to prepare for the coming adverse effects of Global Warming in the Philippines. This exercise is not a pipe dream. It is a vision that is being translated – at least by some Filipino Americans involved in this web site – into business plans and feasibility studies. 

Mission Statement

The Project is committed to creating, developing and maintaining world-class vacation, retirement, convention, cultural and gaming destinations in several locations in the Philippines. Each project will stimulate the local economy and enhance the quality of life of the local citizens, surrounding communities and the visitors themselves through education, technology, entertainment and family-oriented fun. The project will have educational, medical and research facilities, transportation and community-housing developments, shopping centers and sports complexes. The project sites will address the expected increase of the sea level as a result of global warming (climate change). The sites will draw Overseas Filipinos and foreign visitors from all over the world, especially since Filipino workers now toil in more-than 100 countries. Visitors, especially nature lovers, will get to know the Philippines as one of the most-peaceful and beautiful countries on Earth. The project sites will showcase the multiethnic Filipino people and their culture, as enhanced by the contributions of several Asian and Western countries in the making of the Filipino heritage.

Project Scope

Each destination will have viable commercial, resort, entertainment, sports and transportation infrastructures. Each project and all its components will have a Business Plan, an environmental-impact report and a full-blown feasibility study. There will be also an agricultural and research-and-development (R&D) complex in every project site, so that every resort or cluster of resorts will be producing most of the food and sustainable energy requirements for the expected millions of visitors, thousands of retirees and employees and the surrounding communities.

All the projects will have a humanities program that will be oriented towards the educational needs, agricultural development, including a massive reforestation program, and socioeconomic enhancement of the Philippine region where they are located. All facilities for the project are geared to become self-sustaining and ecologically-friendly centers for humanity.

The project(s) will include full-maintenance and state-of-the-art facilities and services for fire-prevention/fighting, security, medical emergencies, healthcare, engineering, design-and-capital enhancement, housing, community facilities, employee benefits and support.

The commercial facilities provide huge additional opportunities for profitable socioeconomic ventures, enhancement of the area’s agricultural heritage, impressive ecological ventures and dynamic economic zones. These ventures – from ethanol plants to windmill farms – will create finally impressive downstream projects and profit centers, especially for Filipino-American entrepreneurs and their communities that now earn in excess of US$42-billion (spelled with a B) per annum.

The agricultural components will be key activities for the projects. The plan is to have an integrated agricultural operation, including fish-farming ventures in the region’s fishponds and bodies of water with processing, packing and distribution facility for the domestic and international markets.

Each complex will have water-filtration and sewage treatment plants that will provide affordable potable water, commercial water products and recycled water for irrigation.

The R&D Center will provide leadership and coordination for education in world hunger relief with training of selected local and foreign students and an organizational program to enhance the local agriculture with a purpose of producing more-than-enough food products, so as to also supply certain export markets.

There will be tremendous local-community benefits. Local merchants will grow, the tax base will increase and community services will take a most-important position. Employment for the project during construction will require at least thousands of construction laborers and when the complex is in operation, will need thousands of permanent and seasonal workers.

The major objective of the plan is to create environmentally-sensitive “eco-planned” resorts, attractions and retirement complexes that will bring visitors, industry and commerce to the area. This will not only to create a viable business climate but also provide a plan that will attract private, government and grant funding to help create a greater goal. The bottom line is to enhance the positive contributions of the Filipino people to world peace, social order, economic development and protection of the environment. 

Sources of Capital 

The project proponents and their financial backers will provide the bridge financing while medium-term and long-term funding are being secured from institutional and private investors from the Asian-American communities, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and other nations.

Grants will also be worked out from governmental entities in the countries that participated in the making of the Filipino heritage. Most of the state-of-the-art components, equipment (from CNG-powered tourist buses, aircraft, fishing boats, etc.), technology and designs may be funded by American or multilateral lending institutions, as may be guaranteed by the United States Export and Import Bank or their equivalent in some of the participating countries.

Additional capital input may come from multinational companies that participate in pollution-credit trading.

The land required for the projects from airports to airport terminals, hotels, retirement condominiums may be negotiated with the Philippine governmental entities such as provinces and cities and with private property cooperatives pursuant to the “Build, Operate and Transfer” (BOT) Law of the Philippines.

It may take seven to 10 years to complete a regional project. Some of the facilities can be programmed to open quickly. The project is considered to be “fast track” with high-level contracting firms challenged with creating many of the infrastructures at the same time, if the needed financial packages are obtained as per schedule.

The suggested target date for completion of the projects in the Philippines is September 2019, when the world will mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Spanish expedition that circumnavigated for the first time the world. The expedition was led by the Portuguese explorer, Fernando de Magallanes, who died in Cebu, Philippines, in 1521, in a battle with Filipino native warriors. The year 2021 will mark the progress of the Filipino people for the past 500 years, beginning with the death of Magallanes (AKA Ferdinand Magellan).

We will discuss more features of the project’s Master Plan in the next article of this series. 

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