CLARK FREEPORT – “Nakakahiya (Shameful).”
A welcomer to a returning kin blurted at the sight of the unfinished passenger terminal of the Clark International Airport, noting the stark contrast it presented to the airport of origin of the incoming Emirates flight.
“I worked in Dubai for five years and their airport is the best in the world. At least, ours should have been finished for this first flight of Emirates to be at least presentable,” he said in the vernacular, asking that he be identified only as “Rudy.” He was not alone in his observation.
An “official guest” at the welcoming ceremonies complained of the heat in the unfinished terminal, jesting: “Maybe it was intended to acclimatize the passengers, accustomed as they are to the desert heat.”
Others who went through the main entrance of the terminal complained of “asphalt fumes” coming off the “freshly paved driveway” as well as of the “smell of fresh paint” once inside the terminal.
“Halatang-halata na ni-rush ang trabaho pero banderang kapos pa rin (Obvious that it was a rush job but still short of being finished),” said one. Traffic mess A hellish traffic jam outside the exit of the CIA immediately ensued just as passengers from the fully booked Emirates flight started coming out of the airport complex.
The unfinished road immediately leading to the terminal rendered a onelane roundabout to the exit which already constricted the flow of traffic. The Philippine Air Force (PAF) was apparently caught unaware with the sudden influx of vehicles which was compounded by the volume of rush-hour traffic from garments and factory workers of industrial locators in this freeport.
The PAF has control of the immediate vicinity just outside the CIA which is part of the more than 300 hectares of its so called Air Force City. An old traffic light located at the intersection of C.M. Recto Highway and M.L. Quezon avenues proved too slow to react to the increasing volume of vehicular traffic rendering vehicles to a standstill.
The problem was compounded with the “first stop, first go” regulation at the next intersection of C.M. Recto and J. Calvo streets. PAF personnel manning both intersections were caught by surprise by the big volume of vehicles.
At one point, a motorcycle mounted policeman of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) crisscrossed the stalled vehicles, parked his bike in the middle of the intersection and started directing traffic to the consternation of the airman.
A staff of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said the traffic jam could have been easily avoided if the PAF allowed the free use of A. Bonifacio Avenue which was the former airport road of the Military Airlift Command (MAC) Terminal of the US Air Force before the PAF restricted its access to motorists.
At present, A. Bonifacio Avenue is open to one-way traffic only. As if to aggravate its limited access, plastic pylons, at least four sets of rumble strips and steel gates secure the access road to the airport.
Motorists exiting the CIA had no choice but to take the choked C.M. Recto Avenue instead of going straight to A. Bonifacio Avenue which leads straight to the main thoroughfare of M.A. Roxas Avenue.
Meanwhile, CIAC president and CEO Victor Jose “Chichos” Luciano said yesterday that he will immediately call a meeting with the PAF officials as well as the CDC to ease the traffic situation.
