Coal fired-plant improves local economy

MARIVELES, Bataan – Lawyer Ace Jello “ AJ” Concepcion, Mayor-elect of this industrial town is expecting more job opportunities, revenues and vibrant economic activities with the construction of a 600 MW coal-fired power plant in the proposed 500 hectare industrial estate in the coastal village of Biaan, this town.

Concepcion said that corporate and technical officials of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) have conducted ocular inspection and assessment of the site which would be the seventh economic zone in the province.

Concepcion, a Sangguniang Bayan member, the town’s legislative body had passed a resolution requiring investors and locators to hire seventy (70) percent of their labor force coming from the local residents.

The plausible ordinance, however, would further strengthen the technical and professional competence of the local manpower to come across with industrial and commercial enterprises stringent requirements in the highly-competitive labor market, Concepcion explained .

He described the conversion of some 500 hectares land into industrial estate would induce tourism-oriented entrepreneurs since Mariveles and adjacent municipality of Bagac, were both starting points of the infamous Death March in 1942.

He anticipates possible increase in tourist arrivals with the undeveloped potential of almost 50 kilometers of Mariveles-Bagac coastal areas, premier vacation and resorts location facing the panoramic West Philippine sea.