This was how the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) described the showroom and service center of Honda Cars Philippines which recently broke ground at the main gate of the Clark Freeport Zone adjacent to the three-hectare Capilion Corp. Pte. Ltd. project on the same site.
PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said the so-called “national photobomber” is a “desecration of our glorious past” while Honda and Capilion “impact negatively on our future.”
Cruz said there is a “clear deception” in the way the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) is signing up lease agreements with investors all jockeying for position at the main gate of Clark.
CDC President-CEO Arthur Tugade is “sabotaging” the development of Clark, he added.
“There was no public consultation at all. Suddenly, these giant infrastructures are mushrooming at the Clark main gate which is a clear sabotage of the Clark airport,” said Cruz.
“Traffic gridlocks at the Clark main gate will surely sabotage the development of the Clark airport because it will be just like going to the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) where it will take airline passengers hours just to survive the horrendous traffic in going to the Manila airport,” he said.
Cruz said Clark should not replicate the mistakes of other airports but find ways to avoid them.
He said during the time of the late Rizalino Navaro as CDC Board chairman, investors who wanted to locate at the Clark main gate were rejected outright.
It was Navaro who rejected the Clark City Walk project of billionaire Andrew Tan at the present Capilion site.
Cruz said Navaro did not allow this to happen because he was also an Angeleno and credit should be given to him for “being steadfast in his vision of Clark as a catalyst for development not only of the region but for the whole country as well.”
“Roy (Navarro) looks far into the future, while those managing Clark today could only see as far as the tip of their noses, thoroughly bankrupt of ideas for Clark,” Cruz said.
