CLARK FREEPORT – Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano lauded yesterday Transportation and Communications Sec. Mar Roxas’ support for the Ramos-era plan to transfer the country’s main international airport from Manila to this freeport.
This, as Luciano bared plans of an investor to construct more hangars that could accommodate wide-bodied aircraft at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) complex here. He declined to give more details on the project pending the finalization of contracts on it.
Roxas confirmed plans to move the country’s main gateway from Manila to Clark in connection with the revival of the 80-kilometer North Rail Project which was initially shelved by Pres. Aquino amid allegations of corruption during the Arroyo administration.
Roxas said the railways project linking Clark to Metro Manila would allow the country’s main aviation gateway to move moved out of the congested metropolis.
In April, 1994, former Pres. Ramos signed Executive Order No. 174 designating the Clark airport, later named after former Pres. Diosdado Macapagal, as the “future site of the country’s premiere international airport.”
EO 174 cited the International Air Transportation Association’s forecast at that time “that more than 376 million enplanements (51.1 percent of world total) will be in the Asia-Pacific by the year 2010, a fourfold increase from 1990.”
The executive order also noted that in other Asian countries, airport expansion were outside major cities “to alleviate congestion in airspace, runways and terminals, and to keep pace with rapid economic development.”
It also stressed the need of “relieving Metro Manila of further increase in migration, congestion, pollution, traffic and other urban ills.”
Luciano said that the CIAC “is prepared to assume fully the requirements of a full fledged international airport.”
“The commitment of Pres. Aquino and Sec. Roxas which they have now made public, is expected to finally remove any hesitation on the part of potential investors to come to the DMIA with solid optimism,” he said, amid plans to construct a world-class passenger terminal on top of the existing terminal at the 2,500-hectare aviation complex here.
Roxas noted that his department has “nearly half a trillion pesos (about $11.5 billion) worth of projects over the next five years.”
Among the projects, Roxas specifically cited the North railway likely costing at least $1 billion to provide fast, cheap transport between Manila and the former US air force base of Clark which, he noted, would then become the country’s main port of entry.
Chinese firm Sinomach, which used to be known as China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC), had already constructed at least 800 concrete piles as part of the project from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan which comprise Phase 1 of the project grounds.
Former officials of the North Luzon Railways Corp. said delays in the project triggered a rise in the cost of Phase 1 of the project to $602 million, up from the original $403 million provided by the loan from China.
Phase 2 is supposed to be from Malolos to the DMIA at Clark.
In 2004, former Pres. Arroyo signed with China a loan agreement on the project whose total cost then was estimated to be $1 billion, but work on the project was started only in 2008.
The work on the project was again stopped by the Aquino administration amid renegotiations with the Chinese government on the project.
