CLARK FREEPORT – “Yet another proof of government’s undeclared but all-too-overt policy not to develop Clark.”Thus said the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) on the finding of a congressional committee hearing that the “dual airport system” pronounced by Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya for the Clark International Airport(CIA) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is “non-existent.”
This, even as PGKM has declared that Clark would be always “very inferior subordinate to dominant NAIA in any twinning or dual airport system.”
The PGKM since the early 1990s has advocated for the CIA to be “premier international gateway” of the country. In a hearing last Thursday at the office of the Clark International Airport Corp. here, the representative of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) identified as one Wyrlou Samodio said the Office of the President has not issued any executive order to the DOTC relative to any dual airport system between NAIA and CIA.
This, despite pronouncements of Abaya of the impact of such system in the critical need to decongest NAIA and pursue the development of the CIA. Pampanga 1st District Rep. Joseller Guiao whopresided over the hearing recalled how Abaya kept repeating the phrase “dual airport system” in reference to the two airports during the recent budget hearings.
“This dual airport thing seemed meaningless,” lamented Guiao who has made the NAIA- CIA complementation scheme as a pet advocacy of his own.
‘Deception’ To the PGKM, the dual airport system is part of a “scheme of deception” of government “to show as though there is something being done to develop Clark at par with NAIA, when in actuality [Clark] is being sabotaged.”
“Government, notably Abaya, admitted to the congestion problem of NAIA and its solution in Clark, yet it has allowed more flights at NAIA even as it failed to stop airlines from leaving Clark,” observed PGKM Chairman Ruperto Cruz.
Cruz cited the case of Air Asia which established its hub in Clark some years back with initial flights to Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu and then expanded its routes, as AirAsia Philippines, to Macau, Hong Kong and Taipei, as well as Puerto Princesa, Kalibo and Davao as domestic destinations, “only to transfer all its operations to NAIA last year.”
Cruz likewise noted the “disappearance” of Tiger Airways Philippines flights from Clark to Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok as well as to Kalibo after the airline merged with Cebu Pacific Air. “Instead of increasing as the years go, flights to and from Clark are decreasing,” he pointed out.
“Then, there is much ballyhooed coming of Emirates with daily Dubai-Clark-Dubai flights starting October last year only to cease its operations in May this year, all in a matter of seven short months when the so-called gestation period of airlineoperations in a given hub is said to be no less than two years,” Cruz recalled.
This, even as Emirates has been allowed by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to increase its flights at NAIA. Last week, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Air along with PAL Express and Tiger Airways Philippines deplored CAB for granting additional 30-day extension for Emirates “to continue operating seven weekly flights on the Dubai-Manila- Dubai routes in excess of their maximum entitlement under the existing Philippines-United Arab Emirates (UAE) bilateral air agreement.”
The Philippine carriers appealed to the CAB to “take the immediate and necessary action to cause [Emirates] to cease and desist its defiance of the Philippine Government in the interest of fair competition and the growth of the Philippine aviation industry.” Imperial Manila Cruz considered the Philippine carriers’ row with CAB over Emirates as the
“Imperial Manila dragons spewing fire over what they perceive as threat to their stranglehold of the local aviation industry.” “If PAL were really sincere in its avowal of concern over the growth of the Philippine aviation industry, why has it not engaged Clark as one more hub for both its international and domestic routes?” asked Cruz.
“And why did Cebu Pacific even take Tiger Airways flights out of Clark?” Aviation industry studies showed that four to five million passengers in the catchment area of the Clark airport comprising Northern and Central Luzon and he northern part of Metro Manila like Quezon City and the Camanava area.
“Certainly, the Clark market has a great impact in growing the aviation industry. Yet, PAL is not biting at all and Cebu Pacific seems indifferent,” Cruz observed. “There lies the evidence of the conspiracy to sabotage the development of Clark.
