CL LEADERS URGE P-NOY:
    Pursue plans to shift from NAIA to DMIA

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    CLARK FREEPORT – Former presidents Ramos and Arroyo did it. Now, Kapampangan and other leaders from Central Luzon anticipate Pres. Aquino to reaffirm it.

    In a meeting here, the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC) issued a resolution urging the Aquino government to commit to fully develop the international airport here named after the father of former Pres. Arroyo whose administration he wants investigated for alleged anomalies.

    The MCAC is composed of mayors of towns around this freeport and representatives from business and other sectors in Central Luzon, The Clark international airport here was renamed Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in 2003 during the term of Mrs. Arroyo, in honor of her father who was also once a Philippine president.

    The MCAC resolution noted that in 1994, former Pres. Ramos issued Executive Order No.174 designating Clark as “the future site of the country’s premiere international airport”. 

    It also said that during her term, Mrs. Arroyo manifested her plans to convert the DMIA into a premiere airport by providing funds for its development, including the P308-million expansion of its passenger terminal.

    Mrs. Arroyo had frequently declared that the DMIA could serve as a better alternative to Manila’s already cramped Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which was named after Pres. Aquino’s late father, former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.

    The MCAC also noted the “recent spate of diversionary flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport which made the DMIA the refuge of incoming international and domestic flights.”

    “The government should now look immediately into the further development of the DMIA because these recent diversion of flights have proven beyond doubt that our airport here can accommodate the widest of commercial airport,” said MCAC co-Chairman Mabalacat, Pampanga Mayor Marino Morales.

    Morales said “the country cannot do with only one airport and must have several airports just like those in neighboring Asean countries such as Hong Kong, which is a leader in the logistics and services industry.”

    He noted that “the full operationalization of the Clark airport will bring in limitless opportunities not only to Pampanga province but to the entire country particularly Central and Northern Luzon.”

    “Neighboring Asian countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong had built their new airports in vast tracts of reclaimed land away from their capital cities. Both areas are now the leaders in airport and logistics services in Asia,” he said.

    The Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), which managed the DMIA, finished the P308-million expansion of the DMIA’s terminal that can now accommodate 2.7 million passengers annually and was in the process of bidding out the construction of a new passenger terminal at the end of the Arroyo administration.

    Morales appealed to the Aquino administration to make sure that plans for the development of the DMIA are pursued, as he cited reports that business magnate Manuel Pangilinan of Metro Pacific is now in talks with Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corporation for a joint venture on the proposed new terminal that could cost some $100 million.

    “It is really a positive development. There are reports Metro Pacific also wants to construct a new railway between the lanes of the North Luzon Expressway to link the DMIA to Metro Manila,” said Morales.

    DMIA hosts foreign and local carriers such as Tiger Airways of Singapore with Clark-Singapore flights, Air Asia of Malaysia with Clark-Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu flights, Asiana Airlines with Clark-Incheon in South Korea flights with connecting flights to the US, China and Japan, Cebu Pacific Air with Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Macau flights and South East Asian Airlines (Seair) with Clark-Caticlan flights towards Boracay island.

    Other carriers include Spirit of Manila Airlines with Clark-Taiwan flights and Jin Air a subsidiary of Korean Air with chartered flights to Incheon.


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