Poe is running as an independent candidate for president in the coming polls while Escudero is her running mate for vice president.
The two senators said if they get elected, they will declare the CIA as the country’s premier gateway in the first quarter of the first year of their term, citing the heavily congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila.
To show their commitment, Escudero said they will make Clark their hub in their campaign sortie beginning next week.
“Gagamitin namin bilang hub ang Clark sa paglipad patungo sa ibat-ibang parte ng ating bansa dahil dito walang trapik at mas mabilis kami makakauwi sa Quezon City kaysa mag-landing kami sa NAIA dahil sa sobrang trapik (We will use Clark as hub in our sorties to other parts of the country because there is no traffic here and it is faster for us to go home to Quezon City as compared to landing at NAIA because of the heavy traffic there),” Escudero said.
“Mas mabilis sa Clark at sa Clark walang laglag bala (It’s faster in Clark and in Clark there is no planting of bullets),” he added in jest.
“The law mandates that 15 percent of the maximum fuel capacity of airplanes should be reserved but because of the delay in landing due to the congested runway at NAIA, their fuel tanks are already empty when they land,” Escudero noted.
Poe said around five million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) coming from Northern and Central Luzon can benefit from the Clark airport. Because of this, she noted that there will be a significant decrease in the volume of traffic in Metro Manila if Clark will be fully utilized.
Poe said the CIA is ideal because Clark runways can still be extended or additional runways can still be constructed.
Poe noted that Thailand has $42 billion income a year from its tourist arrivals while the Philippines earns only $6 billion a year from its tourism industry.
“So if you compare that, it’s too wide,” she lamented.
She also said unemployment in Thailand is only one percent due to its tourism industry while in our country it’s six percent. “So we really need to enhance our tourism and with this is the strengthening of the international airports like Clark,” Poe said.
“We also need to add rail systems from Clark to Subic and to city centers like Angeles,” she declared at the Fortune Restaurant here last Friday. “It’s important that our cities are connected,” she added.
Poe said the benefit from the development of the Clark airport is not only limited in Pampanga or Central Luzon. “Hindi po ito sa iisang probinsya kundi ito po ay para sa national development (This is not only for a single province but for national development),” she said.
