CLARK FREEPORT – The on-going turf war at the top levels of the Clark Inter-national Airport Corp. has reportedly taken its toll on investments at the Clark airport.
Yesterday, informed sources told Punto! that Fly Guam, an airline operating out of the US island territory, has “indefinitely put on hold” its Clark-Agana flights reportedly already scheduled to start this November.
This, the sources said, on account of the “issue of compromised safety of aircraft” arising from the theft of high power cables at the Clark airport’s runway and taxiway.
The cable theft and the resultant in-fighting at the CIAC have had “demoralizing effect” on other airlines operating in Clark, sources in the airline industry said.
“There is real issue of safety, of possible clear and present danger to flights which should be immediately addressed by the CIAC authorities, who instead are fighting tooth-and-nail for positions and influence,” he lamented.
As this developed, the Airline Operators Council is reportedly having second thoughts about moving to Clark because of the issue. The AOC earlier expressed its willingness to move to Clark “if the terminals and the high speed transportation like the speed train from Manila to Clark are in place” in the aftermath of the announcement of Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas of the plan to transfer the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Clark.
Guam flights
As early as three months ago, the Transportation Security Administration of the US Department of Homeland Security is said to have made inspection of the Clark airport as a requisite for the Fly Guam flights.
The TSA exercises authority over the safety and security of the traveling public in the United States as well as US-owned airlines.
CIAC President-CEO Victor Jose Luciano had said then that the Clark airport had met the standards set by the TSA.
“Obviously, it is the TSA that could have stayed the Fly Guam flights, with the safety of the Clark airport put into serious doubt as a result of the pilferage of the cables which serve as back up in case the primary cables lighting the runway and taxiway are damaged,” the source said.
The theft of the cables has become the bone of contention between Luciano and his own vice president for operations, former Capas, Tarlac Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan.
It was Catacutan that exposed to media the cable theft, and accusing Luciano of issuing a personally handwritten note allowing the suspected thieves access to the “high security area.”
In-fighting
“Luciano should be held administratively and criminally liable for qualified theft,” Catacutan said at the time of his expose.
In turn, Catacutan has been accused of trying to undermine Luciano as he “ambitioned” for the CIAC presidency, sources at the corporation said.
This has made the Luciano-Catacutan conflict a “turf war,” according to observers.
The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement, an advocacy group fighting for the Clark airport as the country’s premier international gateway since 1992 said in a statement: “The very people tasked to preside over the development of the Clark airport appear to be the very ones sabotaging that development.”
This, even as PGKM Chairman Ruperto Cruz warned: “This infighting and jostling for positions inside CIAC is a complete drawback to the future of the Clark airport… It could even degenerate to parochialism, some sort of a corporate battle between Tarlac and Pampanga personalities.”
Which it has fast turned out to be with Catacutan asking President Aquino to dismiss Luciano.
In an Oct. 25 letter to the President, Catacutan said: “Faithful to your directive and advocacy to align management operations with your vision towards matuwid na daan (straight path), the following reports identify some major problems confronting CIAC which pose alarming doubts on the integrity of CIAC’s president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano, thus, a contradiction to the noble path you want your people to tread on.”
Luciano dismissed Catacutan’s move as “purely political.”
“Can’t he wait for the result of the independent investigation? What is he afraid of? For the truth to come out?”
Luciano said, referring to the probe ordered by Clark Development President-CEO Felipe Antonio Remollo, acting chair of the CIAC, on the missing cables.
The CIAC engineering department earlier “corrected” reports on the missing cable saying these were “remnants of the old power lines installed along Runway 02R/20L and Taxiway 5…old lines used to power the perimeter lights and not Runway 2 and Taxiway 5 as reported. The power cables at the runway and taxiway remain intact.”
Luciano who went on a leave of absence last week to pave the way for an independent probe of the pilferage is returning to work November 7.
