Pangasinan expressway to spur tourism, growth potential in Northern Luzon

During a media conference at the Sison Auditorium in Lingayen, Pangasinan, governor Ramon Guico III and San Miguel Corp. president and chief executive officer (CEO) Ramon S. Ang inked an agreement for a joint venture and toll concession, wherein the PLEX will be totally owned by the province after 35 years.

“This is our way of re-inventing the traveling terrain and contour in Pangasinan. We want a systemized, comprehensive approach in navigating through Pangasinan by creating a road map never before imagined to be possible. We will also be building the Bolinao airport. This is bolstered by land connectivity with the expressway. Tourism comes to the province, plus our new ports will create more travel links. We may also revive the railway system because right of way is still in place.

“The PLEX is a major infrastructure project that re-invents the transportation landscape, prioritizes accessibility of citizens to major towns and cities, magnifies business and livelihood opportunities, multiplies economic activities, build more useful infrastructures, facilitates in-land travel and protects our environmental resources. By 2025, the province will be producing 1,000-megawatt of solar energy from farms in Western Pangasinan that will greatly help in our energy requirements.

“Our agenda is to secure a safe, stable, sustainable future! This is our road to progress for posterity. This is our way of increasing our inland connectivity through North Luzon to facilitate the movement of people, goods and services, and our answer to the problem of traffic congestion. Expropriation proceedings might be needed to facilitate right of way acquisitions,” said Gov. Guico III in his speech.

Gov. Ramon Guico III and San Miguel Corp. chief executive officer Ramon S. Ang at the Sison Auditorium event. 

PLEX stretches the travel landmarks from the easternmost to the westernmost towns of Pangasinan, traversing through the center, thereby cutting travel time.

“After EDSA 1986 when I joined SMC, there were lots of SMC investments here including food processing. Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) has, in fact, appreciated land value around it from a measly P50 per square meter to its current price of P800.

“Pangasinan is the seat of power in Central Luzon. The PLEX project is a four-year plan. We have already employed a company to do the design and who will facilitate right of way acquisitions as these are usually the problems you’ll encounter in this kind of venture. After acquiring right of way, the roads will rise and be completed as fast as 24 months,” said Ang.

With the pandemic restrictions fully lifted in most areas of the archipelago, including the entire North Luzon, this new connectivity development in accessibility to travel — combined with the speed of traversing from province to province within the central plains to the furthest points of the north — paints a rosy picture not just for tourists and travelers but moreso for enterprises who will enjoy patronage for their products and services as well as the economy that trickles down to the supply chain that will serve the several routes along the way.

The Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Rosary of Manaoag. 

— Earl D.C. Bracamonte