CLARK FREEPORT – A P1-billion loan approved by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) has remained in limbo amid lack of guarantor after the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) took over the airport firm from the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) in 2011.
BCDA Chairman-CEO Ariel Casanova said in an interview here yesterday that his agency withdrew its status as guarantor for the loan, supposed to be used to upgrade facilities at the Clark International Airport (CIA), after Pres. Aquino issued Executive Order 64 that placed CIAC under the DOTC.
“We still have to sit down with DOTC and CIAC to address this subsidiary issue,” he said during the first job fair held here by the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) for persons with disability and Aeta cultural folk.
CIAC used to be a subsidiary of BCDA which owns the lands formerly occupied by the US Air Force base here.
The area comprises some 2,400 hectares of freeport under the CDC, which has remained a BCDA subsidiary, and another 2,400 aviation complex managed by CIAC.
The P1-billion loan was approved earlier in 2011 by the LBP with BCDA as guarantor. The loan was supposed to be for the upgrading of the CIA which hosts a growing number of international and domestic flights. However, CIAC was placed under the DOTC even before the loan could be released.
Earlier, CIAC President-CEO Victor Jose Luciano said the DOTC had asked Malacanang to allocate from its funds some P1.3 billion for the upgrade of the airport here, amid assurances the airport would be converted into one of the country’s premier gateways.
Luciano said the P1 billion loan earlier approved by LBP has remained pending, as he described it as “standby funds” also for the further development of the CIA.
