ANGELES CITY –”The fish caught with his own mouth. What we have long been saying as a conspiracy against the development of the Clark airport, Tyler proved beyond doubt.”
Ruperto “Perto” Cruz, chairman of the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM), said the statement of International Air Transport Association (IATA) President Tony Tyler that the Clark International Airport (CIA) is not the solution to the Philippine’s airport congestion problems only proved the “aggressive stand of Manila-based taipans to prevent – at all costs – Clark being the country’s premier international gateway.
“Tyler is obviously serving the vested interests of two Filipino-Chinese business moguls fearful that their Manila-centric empires would collapse with Clark becoming premier airport,” Cruz said.
Facebook reactions to Tyler’s statements on Clark alleged some “work connections” with San Miguel, whose president Ramon Ang is in partnership with Lucio Tan for the Philippine Airlines.
In an earlier reaction, Partido ABE Kapampangan called Tyler “just another one of a long line of lackeys of some vested interest groups opposed to the full development of DMIA as our country’s future premier gateway.”
The local political party said Tyler “lacks expertise to speak on airport development as he is primarily a representative of profit-oriented commercial airlines.”
“This much is evident in his statement that ‘the Philippines has a rich aviation history’ because ‘PAL is a pioneering airline in the region,” ABE said, which “further betrayed (Tyler’s) protectionist stance in favor of PAL when he inappropriately urged President Noynoy Aquino ‘to make a hub airport for Manila a priority’.”
Tyler’s saying that “building a secondary airport or increasingly splitting the traffic with Clark in its current form will not be sufficient to put the Philippines on the same playing field as its much more competitive neighbours” was, to ABE, “a veiled endorsement of the PAL’s announced plan to build its own airport near Metro Manila, possibly in Bulacan.”
Blind
“Out of sight, out of mind,” Cruz said of Tyler for being blind to the potentials for development the Clark airport brings to the four regions it will serve namely Central Luzon, Ilocos, Cagayan and the Cordilleras.
“Tyler says Clark is too far from Manila, when in fact it is not the distance per se that marks the travel time between those points but the Metro Manila traffic. It takes 40 minutes of leisurely travel from Balintawak to Clark.
It takes over two hours from Balintawak to the Ninoy Aquino Airport,” Cruz argued.
A matter of strict traffic enforcement and discipline, Cruz said, will solve Tyler’s distance problem.
Cruz also took Tyler to task for his “strong opinions” against the viability of the CIA: “Is he superior in intelligence to the Americans who chose Clark for an airport designed to handle the largest planes ever built?”
“Millions of dollars had been invested at Clark and that did not happen without study by the far more advanced American military,” said Cruz.
NAIA closure
While the new airport Ang purported for PAL could well close down the NAIA, the operations of Clark would not threaten NAIA operations.
The PGKM is not advocating for the closure of NAIA, Cruz stressed, but “merely asking for the rightful share of Clark in terms of airport development and flights.”
“Provincial airports which are seasonal and limited to domestic traffic are being rehabilitated or developed, why not the international airport that is Clark?” asked Cruz.
“There are also marks of a conspiracy there,” he said.
