ANGELES CITY – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) is now calling for an audit of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) to fully account for its multi-billion-peso rehabilitation plan and systems upgrade at the Clark International Airport (CIA).
PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said here on Monday that the Commission on Audit (COA) should examine the financial records of CIAC and conduct a thorough investigation to dispel rumors of a cover up. In July last year CIAC President-CEO Victor Jose “Chichos” Luciano disclosed a P1.3 billion “standby funds for the further development" of the CIA.
Luciano said this is on top of the P1 billion approved loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). “What happened to this money?” Cruz asked noting that the CIA passenger terminal is still unfinished.
Just a few days after Luciano’s announcement, Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao (1st District- Pampanga) stated that some P7.2 billion awaited the approval of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) earmarked for the expansion of the Clark airport terminal to handle 15 million to 20 million passengers annually before the term of President Aquino expires in 2016.
Guiao clarified that the funding was in the “unprogrammed budget” of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) which will be given in two tranches of P3.6 billion starting last year so that the money can be used for this year.
Barely three months later, CIAC Executive Vice President Reynaldo Catacutan announced, during a media forum with the Capampangan in Media Inc., plans for a systems upgrade of the CIA to the tune of P886.78 million.
The funds would include a P400 million double security high-tech fence that will enclose the 2,200-hectare airport complex, he said. Catacutan also announced the provision of a” two-finger passenger boarding bridge” worth P109.25 million for the legacy flights like Emirates Airlines.
He added that navigational aids, such as an instrument landing system (ILS) and a Doppler VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range worth P225.53 million will also be installed. He also said that a modern fire truck and a rapid intervention vehicle worth P116 million and two ramp buses worth P36 million will also be acquired by CIAC.
Since announcing all these “programmed developments,” Cruz said, the CIAC has “kept an uneasy and suspicious silence.” “The public has every right to know, where all this money went, and if indeed used for the purpose for which allocated,” Cruz said.
“For all we know, the money could have been diverted somewhere else, to the detriment of the Clark airport.” Only the COA could make a “responsible, credible accounting and auditing of those billions and make sure there was no squandering on the part of CIAC and its mother agency, the Department of Transportation and Communications,” Cruz said.
