The City of San Fernando is located at 67 kilometers north of Manila, 16 kilometers south of Clark Special Economic Zone, and 50 km east of Subic Freeport Zone. It is bounded on the northwestern side by Angeles City, on the northeast by the town of Mexico, Bacolor, on the southwest and Sto. Tomas on the southeast.

The City is subdivided into thirty five (35) barangays with a total land area of some 6,930 hectares. It is a component city that was founded in 1755 that originally included the present day towns of Bacolor and Mexico and became the capital of Pampanga in 1904. San Fernando became the 99th City of the Republic of the Philippines on February 4, 2001 by virtue of Republic Act 8990.

The development direction of the City is anchored in the charter statement, to wit:

Vision

City of San Fernando Pampanga, Home of the Giant Lanterns, will be the Model City of Countryside Development by 2025

Mission

To develop a livable, ecologically-balanced and economically-viable Model City through effective and socially inclusive governance that will enhance the quality of life of Fernandinos.

Land Area: 6,930 hectares (69.30 sq.km.)

• Income Classification: First Class Component City

• Urban Expansion Area: 4,770

• Population: 306,659 (2015 census)

• Projected Population for year 2019: 324,324

• No. of Barangays: 35

• No. of Households: 59,346 (2019-projected)

Financial Profile (2018)*

• IRA Share: Php 705,278,759.00

• Local-Sourced Revenues: Php 1,056,186,032.74

• Total LGU Income: Php 1,764,298,544.66

  *Statement of Receipts and Expenditures

Ecosystem

• Agricultural Ecosystem

Economic Activity

The City of San Fernando has taken the lead role in the region in providing a strategic location and safe environment for business institutions to operate. It is noted that most major corporations and organizations in the country has chosen CSFP to establish their regional or provincial branches.

The presence of large enterprises contributes in stirring up CSFP’s overall economic growth. Considered as an agro-industrial-commercial metropolis in the province, it accommodates convention centers, shopping malls, banking institutions, bottling companies, and several manufacturing companies. This is a result of huge enhancements in the provision of privileges and opportunities for investors in terms of tax flexibility and land use regulations that entice to start up their business in the city.

The strategic location of the City makes it a melting pot or trade point for most industries operating within the region. It is with this consideration that the Regional Government Center is located within the territorial boundaries of the City, alongside major manufacturing, retail, and financial firms. The economy of the City is generally classified as a services and retail economy, with the mentioned industries comprising about 75% of the total registered businesses within the City.

Summary of businesses registered in the city are as follows:

Role of the City in Regional Development

As indicated in the NEDA planning manual, regional centers are town or cities with population ranging from 400 thousand to one (1) million while large towns or major urban centers have population ranging from 100 – 400 thousand. Small to medium towns with population ranging from less than 50 thousand to 100 thousand act as the service hinterlands of urban centers in the upper tier. Shown in Figure 2-2 is a bar chart categorizing all cities and municipalities in Central Luzon according to size using the 2010 census on population as the key variable.

Based on population alone without taking into consideration the level of economic development and functional urban linkages, San Jose Del Monte City (SJDM) in Bulacan is the only local government unit (LGU) in Central Luzon that can be considered a regional center with its population of about 450 thousand in 2010. CSFP ranked 4th in terms of population level region-wide and emerged 3rd in the large town category of 33 towns and cities with its population count of 285,912 in 2010. However, CSFP is part of an emerging urban agglomeration within a radius of 20 kilometers whose population appear to center in Angeles City as computed using GIS. Now popularly known as Metropolitan Clark, the aggregate population of this urban cluster in 2010 exceeded one million. Metro Clark not only satisfied the population threshold of a regional center but it also provided a complexity of urban services befitting a metropolitan center such as but not limited to residential planned unit development (PUDs), economic zones and industrial estates, colleges and universities, retail, medical centers, manufacturing, and banking and finance, transportation and aviation, among others. These are considered regional benchmarks. The rest of the 96 of 130 localities under the small to medium town categories function as the service hinterland of Metro Clark and CSFP.

Shown in Figure 2-3 is the inferred or proposed hierarchy of urban centers in Central Luzon using the 2010 population census. In addition to population, there are other variables considered in formulating the urban hierarchy to include the functional linkages between and among centers, urban clustering, and politico-administrative designation (e.g. municipal, city, and provincial capitals; regional administrative centers). The 3-tiered hierarchy consists of a regional center situated in CSFP, 16 major urban centers, and several service hinterlands.

Iba, Baler, and Palayan City may be under the small town category. However, owing to their designations as provincial capitals of Zambales, Aurora, and Nueva Ecija, respectively, these areas are considered major urban centers. They provide political leaderships and frequently offer higher level urban service within the province, although not as complex as those delivered by the more economically advanced cities like San Fernando City.

When the boundaries of two or more urban centers become less discernible as a result of heavy built-up, the area is starting to agglomerate into a metropolitan area as in the case of Metro Clark. It consists of the cities of Mabalacat, Angeles, and San Fernando in the urban core and the surrounding municipalities of Pampanga, including Bamban and Concepcion, Tarlac in the fringes. The aggregate population of the urban core is more than 800 thousand while the entire metro is beyond one million. Metro Clark is functionally linked to the rest of Central Luzon and northern Luzon regions by SCTEx, NLEx, TPLEx, JASA, and MacArthur Highway (MAH). Some of the crossroads of these high standard highways (HSH) are located in CSFP making it as a regional transportation hub. It is also part of the international air gateway within 20 kilometer radius of Clark International Aviation Complex. CSFP must situate its land use framework and development plans within the context of metropolitan planning and development.

Source: 2015 Socio Economic and BioPhysical Profile of the City of San Fernando Pampanga