NLEX Corp. is spending over P2 billion to expand the Subic Freeport Expressway to accommodate growing vehicle traffic, a top executive said over the weekend.

A portion of the Subic Freeport Expressway (SFEx) source:en.wikipedia.org

NLEX president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said SFEx or the Tipo section of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority would be expanded from 1×1 lane to 2×2 lanes in each direction.

“We are spending over P2 billion for the project but we are still calibrating that,” Franco said.

Franco said the investment proposal would be submitted to the Toll Regulatory Board by October, while construction was expected to start next year.

SFEx, which was constructed in time for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Subic in 1996, is now a part of SCTEx.

NLEX holds the concession to manage, operate and maintain SCTEx, a 93.77-km four-lane highway, traversing the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga and Tarlac.

The company reported a net income of P2.3 billion in January to June, up 17 percent from last year’s P2 billion on higher toll revenues at North Luzon Expressway and SCTEx and efficient utilization of resources covering toll operations and maintenance costs.

NLEX said toll revenues increased 8 percent in the six-month period to P5.7 billion from P5.2 billion a year ago, led by the increase in traffic from both NLEx and SCTEx operations.

Average daily traffic along NLEx reached 233,652 daily entries in the first half, or 7 percent higher than the same period last year, while average daily traffic at SCTEx reached 54,991 daily entries, up by 24 percent from a year earlier.

NLEX earlier submitted an unsolicited proposal to build the P60-billion C5 Expressway, a 21.8-kilometer elevated toll road from the end of NLEX Segment 8.2 on Luzon Avenue, Quezon City to Cavitex C5 South Link.

The project will complete the missing segment of the C5 Circumferential Expressway alignment, a crucial component of the Metro Manila Urban Expressway Network. (Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Standard)

First Published:

• subicnewslink.blogspot.com
• manilastandard.net

Continue Reading

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has greenlighted the takeover by a new company of the debt-ridden property previously leased out to the Lyceum of Subic Bay, Inc. (LSBI), saying the agreement provided for a “win-win” solution for the Subic agency to collect more than P31 million in overdue rent payments and other arrears.

Lyceum of Subic Bay (photo c/o lyceumsubicbay.com.ph

SBMA Administrator & CEO Wilma T. Eisma said a resolution approved by the SBMA Board of Directors last Thursday, Aug. 10, allowed the LSBI to assign its leasehold rights to Premium Technical Training and Facilities, Inc. (PTTFI), which shall assume its financial obligations and continue with the development commitments under its lease.

This was made possible by the withdrawal of the company from coverage of the SBMA policy granting educational institutions a 75% discount in rentals, which are supposed to be plowed back by the schools to scholarship programs and facilities improvement.

The reassignment covered the 34,196 sqm Lyceum campus at Subic’s Cubi-Triboa District, which had P23 million in rentals and utility fees arrears, as well as some P16.68 million in unpaid accounts left by its previous operator, Global Daeil Subic, Inc.

The agreement also required LSBI to pay its debts for another school campus it operates at Subic’s Central Business District (CBD).

Initially, the company paid the SBMA P31 million for its arrears on Thursday, and issued checks to cover outstanding obligations for both the Cubic and CBD campuses.

“As far as we can see, this is a win-win solution to a problem which has been hounding the SBMA since October 2015 when it pre-terminated the contract of Global Daeil over the Cubi property,” Administrator Eisma said.

“The SBMA repossessed the property in January last year and later awarded it to Lyceum, which had the best business model. But unfortunately, Lyceum was not able to operate immediately and market the business properly because of some issue with the previous occupant, so we had a problem that compounded itself over time,” Eisma added.

“But now, with this amendment to the lease and development agreement for Lyceum’s Cubi campus, we finally have a solution that is favorable to all the parties involved,” the SBMA official also said.

According to Beatrix Anagaran, manager of the SBMA General Business and Investment Department, the approved amendment to Lyceum’s lease and development agreement was “overwhelmingly beneficial to the SBMA” because it called for an increase in monthly rent from the discounted rate of P1.22 million to the appraised-value rate of P4 million.

Moreover, the agreement also provided for an increase in escalation rate from 2% per annum starting on the third year to 6% per annum starting on the second year, Anagaran pointed out.

“With Premium Technical taking over the Cubi property, the company will also pay an assignment share to the SBMA, undertake Lyceum’s development commitments, provide additional employment, and continue to honor the scholarship commitments made by Lyceum, with the number of scholars remaining the same,” Anagaran said.

She added that the new operator has also committed to put up a business process outsourcing (BPO) facility at the Cubi campus, as well as a modern training laboratory.

Premium Technical, which is 30% owned by LSBI, has also committed to honor the payment of arrears of Global Daeil with a three-year amortization schedule for the P16-million debt of the previous operator.

It has likewise retained LSBI’s committed investment of P50 million to P100 million, a committed employment of 180 workers, and a development commitment of P10 million to P20 million, and the provision of 36 scholarship grants per year

First Published: subicnewslink.blogspot.com

Continue Reading

Researchers have found the wreckage of the US warship Indianapolis, which was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in the final days of World War Two, more than 18,000 feet (5.5 kilometers) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, the Navy said on Saturday.

Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Paul Simao

The cruiser was returning from its mission to deliver components for the atomic bomb that would soon be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima when it was fired upon in the North Pacific Ocean by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945. It sunk in 12 minutes, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington. No distress signal was sent. About 800 of the 1,196 crew members aboard survived the sinking, but only 316 were rescued alive five days later, with the rest lost to exposure, dehydration, drowning and sharks.

After a Navy historian unearthed new information in 2016 about the warship’s last movements that pointed to a new search area, a team of civilian researchers led by Paul Allen, a Microsoft Corp co-founder, spent months searching in a 600-square-mile (1,500-square-kilometer) patch of ocean. With a vessel rigged with equipment that can reach some of the deepest ocean floors, members of Allen’s team found the wreckage somewhere in the Philippine Sea on Friday, Allen said in a statement on his website.

The statement said the Navy had asked Allen to keep the precise location confidential. Allen said that the discovery was a humbling experience and a means of honoring sailors he saw as playing a vital role in ending World War Two. “While our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming,” he said.

Identification was easier than in some deep-sea expeditions: some of the exposed wreck was clearly marked with Indianapolis signage, according to photographs shared by Allen and the Navy.
“It is exceedingly rare you find the name of the ship on a piece of the wreckage,” Paul Taylor, a spokesman for the Naval History and Heritage Command, said in a telephone interview. “If that’s not Indianapolis then I don’t know what is.”

The Navy said it had plans to honor the 22 survivors from the Indianapolis still alive along with the families of the ship’s crew.

First Published: news.abs-cbn.com

Continue Reading

WASHINGTON (NNS) — The Navy announced Wednesday that the seven Sailors who died aboard USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), were posthumously advanced to their next rank.

– Gunner’s Mate Seaman Apprentice Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, Virginia, was posthumously advanced to Gunner’s Mate Seaman.

– Yeoman 3rd Class (frocked) Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego was posthumously permanently advanced to Petty Officer 3rd class.

– Sonar Technician 3rd Class (frocked) Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Connecticut, was posthumously permanently advanced to Petty Officer 3rd class.

– Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, Texas, was posthumously advanced to Petty Officer 1st class.

– Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, California, was posthumously advanced to Petty Officer 1st class.

– Personnel Specialist 1st Class (frocked) Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, Maryland, was posthumously permanently advanced to Petty Officer 1st class.

– Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, from Elyria, Ohio, was posthumously advanced to Chief Petty Officer.

The remains of these seven Sailors were located June 18, in flooded berthing compartments, after divers gained access to the spaces that were damaged when the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald was involved in a collision with the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal. (Chief of Naval Personnel Public Affairs)

First Published: subicnewslink.blogspot.com

Continue Reading

From July 11 to 26, Philippine Marines from Assault Armor Battalion and U.S. Marines from Combat Assault Battalion, 3rd Marine Division worked together to become familiar with Amphibious Assault Vehicles and how to best utilize their capabilities.

This is the first time that members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines have trained on a U.S. military base.

During this training, Philippine Marines learned different amphibious skills such as hand signaling, egress training, and water operations. They also familiarized themselves with maintenance procedures, logistical planning, and facility capabilities.

This training benefits both forces moving forward as they continue to work together during exercises such as Kamandag this October to bolster Philippine amphibious capability and combined security operations.

First Published: subicbaynews.net

Continue Reading