CLARK FREEPORT – Sen. Gregorio Honasan said yesterday that the propensity of the Aquino government to blame the past Arroyo administration has stalled the full development of the Clark International Airport (CIA) here into the country’s premiere international airport.
In a meeting with the local media here, Honasan lamented the failure of the Aquino administration to pursue the north railways project that was supposed to link Clark and Metro Manila.
Honasan is seeking reelection as senatorial candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
Work on the project, which was started during the term of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was stopped in the first year of the Aquino government amid allegations of anomalies involving loans provided by the Chinese government.
Honasan said that folk in northern provinces need a railway system that would connect not only Clark and Metro Manila, but also all regions north of the capital.
He lamented that instead of pushing through with the project, the Aquino administration has concentrated on the alleged failure of the Arroyo government. “But if there is any failure, it’s a cumulative one that other previous governments had also been responsible for,” he noted.
In 1994, then Pres. Fidel Ramos issued an executive order declaring Clark as the future site of the country’s premiere international gateway. A proposal for a modern railways system between Clark and Metro Manila was then hatched, but it was only during the term of Arroyo that actual work on the project was started.
In a press conference in San Fernando, Pampanga earlier, Pres. Aquino admitted that his administration had not taken any move to push through with the railways project, as he cited that the 80-kilometer distance between Clark and Metro Manila was unacceptable for a premiere airport.
