CLARK FREEPORT ZONE — With its disaster-resilient features, Clark is now considered as an ‘iCloud City’, a back-up city that will be an ideal refuge and location if Manila fail to resist natural disasters.
In a column article in Bloomberg written by Andy Mukherjee, renowned architect and designer Royal Pineda once cited that Clark can be compared to an “iCloud” for it will serve as a site for continuous government operations if Metro Manila fails to surpass calamities.
The development of the New Clark City (NCC) is also the answer of the government in decongesting Metro Manila as it envisions NCC to be the first green, smart and disaster-resilient city.
With no seismic fault lines underneath, NCC will be a site for various establishments which include government offices, housing, sports complex and other infrastructures which will help in economic development.
The strategic location of Clark with higher elevation makes it less susceptible to floods and withstand other natural disasters, making it a practical and premiere recovery site during calamities and disasters.
It can be recalled that the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) recently chose Clark as a location where they established the first private sector-run National Emergency Operations Center.
Clark serves as the site for the said facility and it is one of the designated recovery sites identified by the government in the national contingency plan. It is also an ideal place due to its proximity to the Clark International Airport and Port of Subic Bay.
The PDRF emergency operations in Clark complements government efforts and it highlights private sector initiatives in all aspects of response and early recovery as it will provide alerts and updates to the PDRF network during emergency situations.
It also features a command center which harnesses data from local and international sources to monitor earthquakes, tropical cyclones, volcanic eruptions and pandemics and maps data on public infrastructure to help protect them from hazards.