CLARK FIELD – It puzzles many cabalen why the vaunted 93.77-kilometer expressway designed to serve the Subic and the Clark trade zones does not have an interchange, ramp or exit in this American air base turned into an industrial complex.

If you are in Clark and want to motor to Subic via the P29.5-billion Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), you first have to drive out of the base to Dau, circle around to the North Luzon Expressway and enter the SCTEx through a ramp in barangay Mabiga in Mabalacat.

And if you are coming from Subic bound for Clark some 50 kilometers away, you cannot drop off here but must exit outside Clark at Mabiga and then take a roundabout route to Clark via Dau.

Dau and Mabiga are barangays of Mabalacat. But it is not true that the circuitous route to SCTEx was devised by Mabalacat Mayor Boking Morales to force visitors to see more of his town that he has dubbed the industrial capital of the province.

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NEW LOAN: How come there is no SCTEx exit/ramp/interchange at Clark? The scuttlebutt is that the billions, borrowed from Japan, ran out because some well-connected individuals bit off too big a commission from contractors.

Now the sponsors of the project — I presume with the knowledge of President Gloria Arroyo and her congressman son Mikey — are working out another Japanese loan to build interchanges needed in Clark, Porac and Floridablanca.

Initially, they borrowed P21.5 billion. But that money is not enough to satisfy everybody, so now the loan is being upgraded to P29.5 billion.

Do not pity the shrewd Japanese Shylocks, because they will get their usual pound of flesh. They will bring in their own consultants, products, materials and services that will eat a big chunk of the loan.

Everybody will be happy — except taxpayers who will shoulder the high cost of borrowing money and lining the pockets of the usual commissioners.

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SPUR ROAD: The Mabiga ramp is the reincarnation of the spur road that then President Fidel V. Ramos started to build. Its construction had to stop when it was discovered that the two-kilometer stretch was to be built reportedly at almost P1 billion per kilometer!

I had checked if the reinforcing bars that Eddie Ramos wanted to use were not made of steel but of gold, or that the cement was laced with silver. I found no evidence of gold or silver components.

Deeper into Clark, meanwhile, another Ramos creation — the Centennial Expo something — sits forlornly as weeds, volcanic dust and such telltale signs of neglect take over the structure.

Its project manager during the construction, former Secretary Aber Canlas, has not been paid for his services even as he now lies in the hospital wasting away from cancer. The project owes him less than P2 million. That is not much in these inflationary times, but they refuse to pay him.

Maybe some bright tourism specialist should refurbish the Centennial Expo and market it as a unique attraction — something like “You wanna see a White Elephant? Visit the Eddie Expo at Clark!”

Somebody should round up all these White Elephants — another one is the ill-fated nuclear power plant in Morong, Bataan — and put them to some productive use for tourism.

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LAPID AT PTA: Now we have a sleight-of-hand artist who might just be able to do that. Former Pampanga Gov. Mark Lapid of lahar fame has just been appointed by President Arroyo as general manager of the Philippine Tourism Authority.

In case you want to know who Mark is, he was a barangay captain in Porac when President Arroyo made him governor — while his father, movie stunt man Lito Lapid, was installed in the Senate. Shades of Caesar naming his favorite horse a consul?

From a dusty barangay to the more staid capitolio is a quantum political leap, but you know how agile acrobats the Lapids are.

(I take my hat off to Jojo Binay — now a dark horse for the opposition presidential nomination in 2010 – for stopping Lito Lapid’s last leap forward as an aspiring mayor of Makati and neutralizing the hundreds of millions reportedly poured into the campaign.)

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LOWER TOLL: In her speech in Minalin last Wednesday, President Arroyo announced some good news as she talked about the town’s being the “ebun” (egg) basket of Luzon, half of whose supply comes from the place.

She reported that the current favorable peso-dollar exchange rate has reduced the debt service load of the Manila North Tollways Corp., giving the Lopez-controlled firm a windfall in its toll operation of the North Luzon Expressway.

Its debt obligations in pesos have dropped by some 30 percent, because it secured dollar-denominated loans for the NLEx at an average of P54 to the US dollar. Now the exchange rate is P43 to the dollar.

She has ordered the toll regulatory board to lower the toll rates for the expressway linking Metro Manila, Bulacan and Pampanga. The reduced rates will take effect June 30, she said.