ANGELES CITY – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) has challenged the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to show more transparency and clarity in its much ballyhooed plan of a “third airport.” PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said the DOTC should stop delaying the full development of the Clark International Airport (CIA) and lay down specific plans on it’s so called third airport.
The PGKM was reacting to a recent DOTC press release which said it is “looking at putting into operation a new international airport by 2027 with the joint development of the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila and the CIA in Pampanga as the number of passengers is expected to more than triple by 2040.”
“To meet these expected volumes, the DOTC said the government has identified two viable options that involve the expansion of CIA as well as the development of a new international airport roughly within 20 to 30 minutes of Metro Manila.”
“Who will be the owner (of the new airport)? Will it be constructed by the national government or the private sector? Cruz asked.
The PGKM noted that under the DOTC plan, the new international airport, which will be operational by 2027, would provide 78 percent of the required passenger terminal building while the international gateway in Clark, Pampanga would handle the remaining 22 percent.
But the PGKM slammed the DOTC plan and said it is detrimental to the national government’s objective of developing the countryside and decongesting Manila. The PGKM said the DOTC plan is “a virtual reincarnation” of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co., Inc. (PIATCO) deal which stipulated that no airport in Luzon will be developed unless NAIA 3 has acquired a 10-million passenger capacity for three consecutive years.
PIATCO is the builder of NAIA 3. The PGKM opposed the deal and even instituted a class suit against PIATCO in 2001. Cruz said the current P360-million expansion of the CIA to serve some five million passengers annually “hews to the DOTC planned 22 percent of spill-over from the third airport.”
“The DOTC at this early is already constricting the capacity of Clark as a justification to its third airport,” Cruz said. Under the DOTC plan, NAIA will be closed in 2030 in favor of the new international airport which will either be located in Sangley Point, Cavite or Bulacan based on the department’s previous press announcements.
Cruz said he cannot even comprehend why the DOTC is contemplating of 2027 when it will be a totally new ball game in 2016. “Is the DOTC trying to tie the hands of the next administration into its vested interests or is this Abaya’s opening salvo for the vice presidency in 2016?” Cruz asked referring to DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya, rumoured to be “possible” vice presidential timber to Mar Roxas in the Liberal Party slate for 2016.
“Are they pushing for the Bulacan airport because it will be situated in land owned by the Roxas family?” asked Cruz. The PGKM chair said it is likely that the third airport will be put up “at the expense of the Kapampangans and the people of Central and Northern Luzon” who are served by the CIA.
“PNoy’s inner circle is bringing him down with irresponsible counseling,” he said. According to former senator Joker Arroyo, during the time of Cory Aquino as president, it is the Aquino cabinet members that protect the president unlike now it is the President himself that takes the cudgels for his cabinet.
Cruz said it is a “waste of money” to rehabilitate NAIA when there are plans to close it in 2030. The PGKM is an advocacy group based in this city that has been calling for the full and immediate development of the CIA since 1991.
