“ALAM MO naman Ashley, basta sinabi mo, gagawin ko.”
Such is the immensity of the faith of Clark Development Corp. President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade in the excellent judgment of colleague Ashley Manabat that I wish, just this once, I were the esteemed journalist.
If only to impress upon Tugade the ramifications of his inking that memorandum of agreement for the restaging of the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Clark.
Fast facts on the MOA from the press release of the CDC: It was signed by Tugade, along with fellow head honchos Arnel Casanova of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Victor Jose Luciano of the Clark International Airport Corp., and Capt. Joy Roa of the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Foundation Inc. (PIHABF) last Holy Tuesday at Roa’s Asian Air Safari hangar in Pasay City; The festival is scheduled February 12-15, 2015 at the Philippine Air Force (PAF) ADAC Hangar here; and The MOA has a life of three years.
Provisions and protocols – even but the salient ones – binding the signatories were not covered in the press release, leading Manabat, an editor to reckon too, to dismiss the PR as “a lousy shit of inaccuracy.” While missing on the essentials, the PR was replete with the peripherals, to wit:
“Tugade said the holding of the hot air balloon fiesta, is a testament of the dedication that Roa’s group made for the many years of the festival held in Clark. Tugade also praised Roa for agreeing in signing the agreement for three years. Luciano said the hot balloon fiesta is very much suitable in Clark.”
Luciano’s about-face we consigned to yesterday’s piece here. Even as we readily forgive Tugade’s ignorance over his laudation of Roa – a perennial post-festival plaint of the CDC staff, and the PAF’s too, is their being “treated like dirt” by the hot-aired balloonist – we would like to take him on certain issues that will most certainly impact on his express policy of transparency and accountability at the CDC.
One. Is the CDC bound by the MOA to continue its subsidy to Roa’s PIHABF?
Moolah to Roa
As everyone knows – thanks to CDC press releases – the government-controlled corporation regularly doled out moolah to Roa – P3.5 million yearly since 2009. Public money that was never subjected to liquidation or auditing processes. Will it be any different with Tugade?
Two. Gate receipts, parking fees, stall rentals, etcetera also went to Roa’s PIHABF. Again, absent auditing. Consider that in 2009, per a CDC unofficial, and therefore hidden, report, 49,638 tickets worth at least P100 each were sold, and 5,735 vehicles parked in the designated P50-for-cars, P100-for-buses parking areas during the fourday period.
Truly, immense cash crop there already reaped by Roa. And we did not even count the stall areas, going at an average of P17,000 per, and the even pricier corporate sponsorships! Now, pursuant to transparency and accountability, will Tugade engage Grace Pulido-Tan to do a fine-toothed combing of Roa’s records? And enlist the services of Kim Henares too? Three.
Any provision in the MOA on the access to the festival of the indigenous people and the persons with disability – two marginalized sectors championed by Tugade – in terms not only of entertainment but moreso of opportunities for livelihood and services?
While the CDC and PAF staffs complained of being treated by Roa like dirt, the IPs decried being stepped on like shit. So, what do we have for them in the 2015 balloon fest, Atty. Tugade? Time and again we have written here that the CDC really treated Roa like royalty. Or, it has conferred upon him the first ever mostpreferred- locator-at-large at the Clark Freeport.
Time and again, we have been proven right. And how, this time around. Tugade even praising Roa “for agreeing in signing the agreement for three years” really takes the cake. Yes – as I said in the case of Luciano’s sudden affliction of foot-in-mouth disease with his agreeing to the balloon fest in Clark – I believe there is a higher power that not only backs up Roa but even impacts him wherever his hot airs blow.
Still, there won’t be any wavering in my stand on the Clark balloon fest that has…well, stood the test of time: “Verily, the hot air balloon festival is a direct indictment of the failure of the CDC and the CIAC to launch the Clark Freeport and the Clark International Airport to their proper niches, as capital- and laborintensive, export-oriented investment zone for the former; as premier international airport for the latter.
So, where in the world can you find an economic zone and an international airport hosting a hot air balloon festival?
Onli in da Pilipins, as the urban idiot is wont to say. Yeah, and the fixation on Clark as the only site for a hot air balloon fest has even exploded in the face of Roa and his CDC, CIAC and BCDA cohorts! Staged in Lubao, Pampanga last April 10-13 by the fledgling Pilipinas International Balloon Festival Inc. – which was organized for this very purpose – in cooperation with the provincial government, the eponymously named First Pilipinas International Hot Air Balloon Festival outdid its Clark elder with the record-breaking precedent of 35 participating balloons and attendance of over 60,000.
Indeed, as all seven foreign balloonists interviewed by media affi rmed: Lubao is second only to Albuquerque, New Mexico as “most ideal” hot air ballooning site for the expanse of the place, the water features and the wind direction – “it goes in circles as against Clark’s unidirection.”
Yes, Clark is most apparently not it where hot air balloons are concerned. Really wishing I were Manabat to be telling Tugade all this.
