Pampanga 1st District Rep. Joseller Guiao said here that the fate of the proposed P12-billion new passenger terminal at the Clark International Airport would now rest in the hands of the victor in the May presidential elections, despite assured funding for the already delayed project.
In a forum with the Capampangans in Media, Inc. (CAMI), Guiao said even the initial P1.2-billion allocated for the project last year would revert back to the national treasury if it is not used within two years.
In an earlier interview, however, Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president-CEO Atty. Emigdio Tanjuatco III said the construction of the new terminal is not expected to start until 2017, after the government decided to ignore the project’s design done by the Aeroporte de Paris (ADP) and to hold instead a bidding for a new designer at the cost of about P500 million.
The ADP opted out of any construction involvement in the project after the government decided to realize the design only in phases over several years up to 2022.
“So it was decided that the ADP design, which was fi nished as grant and at no cost to the government, be dropped so that we can hire a consultant who could then build a new design appropriate for construction in phases,” Tanjuatco said.
Tanjuatco declined to give more details about the hiring of a consultant, but a source from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) who asked not to be quoted for lack of authority to disclose any information on the matter, confi rmed that P500 million has been allocated for the consultant.
“But I am sure the consultancy cost would be derived from the P1.3 billion and the P2 billion fund allocation in the 2015 and 2016 general appropriations for the project,” Tanjuatco noted.
Guiao said that on top of the P1.2 billion allotted last year in the national budget for the new terminal, another P2 billion for the project is in this year’s general appropriations.
“We are assured of the budget, but what happens next to the construction would depend on the next president,” he noted.
He stressed, however, that the yearly allocation for the P12-billion terminal, to be completed in 2022 to accommodate seven million passengers yearly, should be used for the project within two years or face being reverted to the national coffers.
Guiao, who is running for reelection under the Liberal Party (LP), noted that among the presidential candidates in the coming May elections, only LP’s standard bearer Mar Roxas has the full development of the Clark airport in his platform. “The other candidates mention Clark airport only in passing,” he noted.
Central Luzon leaders, however, have blamed Roxas, who was once transportation secretary, and the Aquino administration for allegedly stalling the full conversion of the airport here into a premiere gateway.
Under Aquino, plans to link Clark to Metro Manila via modern railway was shelved, even as it froze the railway project already started by former Pres. Arroyo from a loan from China.
Roxas has also been consistently trailing behind three other presidential candidates in surveys.
Tanjuatco recalled that initially the National Economic Development Authority was reluctant to fund the new terminal project, as Clark airport’s existing terminal which can accommodate three million passengers per year only accommodates about one million yearly.
“But we do not what to experience what happened to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) where proposals for expansion came too late, when the airport has already exceeded saturation point,” he said.
Tanjuatco said the construction of the new terminal itself is not expected within this year amid the need to comply with bidding and other requirements before work on the project could start.
