ANGELES CITY – The advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) yesterday dared the organizers and leaders of the so called “Clark Challenge:
Stakeholders Summit” to “free” the Clark International Airport (CIA) “from the tethers of Imperial Manila.” PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said yesterday that the Clark summit should focus on how to fasttrack the development of
the CIA it by “working for its autonomy.”
The CIA is managed by the Clark International Airport Corp., formerly a subsidiary of the Bases Conversion Development Authority but is now under the Department of Transportation and Communications.
“We cannot hope for any full development of the CIA as long as it is under the dictates and direction of Manila-centric agencies,” Cruz said. The challenge is for the establishment of a Clark International Airport Authority, independent of line agencies of the government, “with a charter of its own, focused solely on the development
and management of the CIA,” Cruz said, giving as model the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority.
“With no strings attached to Imperial Manila, the Mactan airport charted its own destiny in the aviation industry and succeeded in catalysing the development of the areas it serves,” Cruz said. “We, in Pampanga and Central Luzon can do no less with an autonomous Clark airport.”
No to twin-airport system
Cruz likewise took exception to the proposed “twinning” of the CIA and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport advanced by the CIAC and the DOTC. “That’s the PIATCO deal in actual practice, only the “latak” or crumbs from NAIA will be given to Clark, serving as though the lesser of the twin with Manila as the dominant sibling,” Cruz said.
The now- scrapped PIATCO deal mandated that the development of any international airport in the country could be undertaken only after NAIA achieved an annual arrival of 10 million passengers for three consecutive years.
The PIATCO deal was challenged in court by the PGKM in the early 2000’s calling it a “sabotage of the Clark airport’s declaration (by former President Ramos) as future premier international gateway of the country.”
Closed eyes
Part of the Clark challenge, Cruz reminded the so-called stakeholders going to the summit organized by Pampanga 1st District Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao is to “force open the closed eyes of government to the potentials of Clark which government has long been squandering.”
“Clark has some 2,500 hectares of aviation area, two parallel runways and sound infrastructure all around. It has the only extant space for a third runway even,” Cruz said. “But instead of tapping these actual resources, government is still looking for other areas for the country’s premier airport, even wanting to go into expensive and environmentally unsound reclamation.”
“An airport in a reclaimed area is open to storm surges – as shown by Yolanda, yet government is stubbornly pursuing that direction,” Cruz said, referencing to reports of reclamation in Sangley Point or along the Bulacan coastline as possible airport sites.
Challenge to leaders
Bolstering his call for a Clark International Airport Authority is the challenge PGKM hurled to the region’s political leaders to “put your money where your mouths are.” The Regional Development Council for Central Luzon has been reported to back the full development of the CIA as premier international gateway.
Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Oscar S. Rodriguez, vice chair of the Central Luzon Bloc of congressmen is reported to have marshalled his peers up to Northern Luzon to support the same advocacy.
“First, our legislators can start laying the legal ground for the Clark airport authority. Second, they can dedicate their priority development assistance fund or however it is called now, to fund that authority, “Cruz said.
“If Sen. Jinggoy Estrada could allot his PDAF to his father’s LGU, I don’t see any reason why our congressmen, and Sen. Lito Lapid too, to do the same for Clark.” For the local government units contiguous to Clark, Cruz said they should “cease and desist from their culture of mendicancy, of merely waiting for largesse from the freeport and instead actively work for its development.”
The Clark Challenged: Stakeholders Summit 2014 is scheduled for Thursday, January 16 at the Widus Convention Center here. The BCDA, CIAC and the Clark Development Corp. are set to make their own presentations for the development of CIA before an expected assembly of 200 businessmen, local officials
and NGOs.
The Clark summit aims to prod the national government to put up a policy on Clark especially on the airport. – With reports from Ashley Manabat “There is lack of sincerity from our national leaders to develop our airport but with an autonomous Clark International Airport Authority, k InternTas ann autonomous region, Kapampangans
will plot their own path for its full and immediate development,” said Cruz.
The challenge is for the establishment of the Clark International Airport Authority, autonomous from line agencies of the government, that will oversee the development of the CIA, he explained. Cruz said the Central Luzon bloc of the House of Representatives as well as Kapampangan senators in the Senate should put their Priority Development Fund (PDAF) for funding the full and immediate development of the CIA.
He said funds can also be culled from the MRT subsidy funded by the Filipino people as well as from local government units (LGUs) from Central and Northern Luzon. Cruz said the CIA is the only airport which has an existing 2,500 hectares of available space as well as two parallel runways and more than enough space for
another one.
“There is no more reason for delay,” said Cruz. “The time to act is now, he said, adding that “Kapampangans as well as other stakeholders in Central and Northern Luzon to should act as one now.”
Cruz said the move of the national leadership to make the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) under the auspices of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) greatly undermines the CIA development and exposes the collusion in its hidden agenda to sabotage its development, he said.
Representative Joseller “Yeng” Guiao (1st district, Pampanga) has organized the Clark Stakeholders Summit
scheduled for today at the Widus Convention Center here. The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA and its subsidiary the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) as well as the CIAC are set to make their own presentations for the development of CIA.
The Clark summit aims to prod the national government to put up a policy on Clark especially on the airport.
