ANGELES CITY – The holding of the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Clark, scheduled from February 12 to 15, is part of the efforts to sabotage the full development of the Clark International Airport (CIA) and should immediately be stopped.
The Pinoy Gumising Punto! Central Luzon: February 6, 2015 Ka Movement (PGKM) also said proper accounting of the government funds spent for hot air balloon festivals in Clark should be made public. “So what international airport in the world can you find hosting hot air balloon festivals?
Balloons are a risk to aviation, especially to passenger airlines,” PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said. “With Clark identified as hot air balloon festival site, it loses its premium as commercial aviation hub.”
“This is yet another sabotage of the Clark airport, to abort its development into an international gateway of the country,” Cruz added. At the same time, Cruz questioned the “propriety” of the subsidy being extended by the Clark Development Corp. to the sponsor of the Clark hot air balloon festival.
In years past, the CDC is reported to have extended from P2 million to P3.5 million annually to the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta Foundation, Inc. (PIHABFFI), through its president Capt. Jose Mari “Joi” Roa.
This, on top of the parking fees, gate receipts, stall rentals, commercial sponsorships which reportedly “all accrue to the PIHABFFI. The CDC subsidies and earnings from the balloon festival have not been subjected to any government auditing processes.
No accounting
“Where did the money go? It seems that only Roa rakes in profit,” noted Cruz. Entitled: “A Weekend of Everything That Flies,” the PIHABFFI organizes the staging of the Clark hot air balloon fiesta in a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) for this year.
“If the government spends funds for a project, there should be proper accounting,” said Cruz. “For so many years now there is no accounting,” he added. Cruz said the Commission on Audit (COA) should start looking into the books of he PIHABFFI.
First festival
It was the Department of Tourism led by then Secretary Mina Gabor and Regional Director Ronnie Tioutuico along with Korean businessman and hot-air balloon pilot Sung Kee Paik, British Airways GM John Emery, and German ax Motschmann that started the Clark hot air balloon festival in 1994.
This with the express objective of priming Clark as engine of economic development in the immediate post-Pinatubo times and develop hot air ballooning as an viation sport in the country. A total of 13 balloons participated in the first festival, even giving free rides to the public.
In 1996 the event was turned over to Roa “pursuant to privatization,” with the provision that government ould cease funding the event. But the CDC has provided subsidy that, from 2009, amounted to P3.5 million.
CIAC pull-out
In 2011, the CIAC pulled out its support “in money and in kind” to the hot air balloon festival. Then CIAC President- CEO Victor Jose Luciano categorically stated to media: “This year, 2011, the CIAC has not joined the Hot Air Balloon (Festival).
We believe that the project is not in focus with the priorities of CIAC which are to accelerate the development of the airport and woo more airlines to fly to Clark.” The PGKM found vindication of its position that the hot air balloon festival was detrimental to the development of the Clark airport.
Luciano added: “For 2010, when IAC became a partner in the project, through my own efforts, singlehandedly I raised P5.5 million from sponsors which very well covered the P3.5 million payment to Joy Roa.” In 2013, Luciano however sang a different tune after he signed a MOA with Roa for that year’s hot air balloon fiesta.
Said Luciano: “Yes we will endorse that (hot air balloon fiesta) subject to the approval of CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) on safety issues and for as long as the events will not interfere with flight operations of our nine airlines in Clark.”
The PGKM lambasted Luciano for this “change of heart” even as it called him “”co-conspirator in the conspiracy to sabotage the development of the Clark airport.”
Cancellation
Last year, the hot air balloon festival in Clark was cancelled “because of lack of preparations.” The CDC said [Organizer Capt. Joy Roa] has set a standard and he wants to surpass the success of the 2013 hot air balloon festival” even as it announced “the event will resume in 2015 with more well-prepared activities.”
Lubao edition
The absence of Roa and Clark cancellation of the event however did not prevent the regional office of the Department of Tourism from spearheading a hot air balloon festival in cooperation with a team of local and foreign enthusiasts of the sport and the provincial government of Pampanga.
Dubbed Philippine International Balloon Festival, the event was held on April 10-13, 2014 in Barangay Prado Siongco Lubao town with 35 balloons – more than in any of the Clark event had – from 10 countries.
The Lubao festival organizers noted that hot air balloon events should be staged beyond the 25-kilometer no-fly zone around the Clark airport. Their site is 33 kilometers away from the Clark civil aviation area It was observed too that flying hot-air balloons at an altitude of 4,000 feet may inconvenience airlines especially if launched during peak hours.
Perfect site
Veteran balloon pilots soon learned that Barangay Prado Siongco, Lubao has more favorable wind conditions for flying hot air balloons than Clark. Steven Kim from South Korea said that unlike in Clark where the wind is uni-directional or moving in only one direction, the Lubao site has “winds in wide circles.”
The favorable wind condition virtually makes balloons float in the air and come back to their take off points. Kim also noted that Lubao ranks among the few sites in the world where the wind conditions are favorable to hot air balloon flying like in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the USA where hundreds of balloonists participate yearly.
