ANGELES CITY – Amid the hoopla surrounding the five-millionth passenger at the Clark International Airport past midnight Wednesday, an advocacy group asked where the terminal fees collected here go.
The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement said the Clark International Airport Corp. should be “transparent enough to make public how it makes use of the terminal fees it collects from travellers.”
With five million passengers already passing through the CIA, the PGKM estimated the CIAC had collected some P2.25 billion in terminal fees, at its current rate of P450. The terminal fee has been alternatingly decreased and increased in the course of the CIA’s operations, with the current P450 reportedly the lowest.
“The amount (P2.25 billion estimate) is more than enough to build more than one low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) CIAC has long been harping about but could not deliver,” said PGKM chairman Ruperto Cruz.
The CIAC had proposed to the Department of Transportation and Communications plans for a budget LCCT that would initially accommodate an approximate 10 million passengers annually.
“The proposed LCCT will be similar to the budget terminal at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia,” CIAC president-CEO Victor Jose Luciano said.
The increase in the flights at the CIA has highlighted the deficiencies of the present terminal, Cruz said.
“The volume of passenger traffic over-capacitates the terminal leaving many travellers standing while waiting to board while others squat on the floor,” noted Cruz, even as he called the little-used second floor of the rehabilitated section “good only for maiden flights.”
Passengers here also complain about the airport toilets.
“Rusty faucets, chipped toilet bowls, broken doorlocks, dirty floors.” A frequent flyer described the toilets at the greeter’s area which he said were “only a degree worse than those in the departure and arrival areas.”
“Considering the amount being collected by the CIAC in terminal fees, it is the height of absurdity that things as basic as toilets would be this dilapidated,” Cruz said.
“Any one foreign visitor or local alike passing through the Clark terminal toilets would readily dismiss “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” as a complete hoax,” Cruz said.
According to Cruz, the decrepit state of the Clark terminal showed the “misuse, even abuse, of the terminal fees” which in turn showed the “incapacity” of the CIAC officials to “tap the full world-class potential of the Clark airport.”
The PGKM has called for the ouster of Luciano and, at the time he was DOTC Secretary, Mar Roxas for what it feared was “a conspiracy to sabotage the development of the CIA “ to be the country’s premier international gateway.
