WITH THE floodings in Pangasinan, Mother Nature struck one for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport .
How? Why? Read on.
On September 30, with Metro Manila still gripped by and griping over the aftereffects of tropical storm Ondoy, came the news of a P135-million agreement between the Department of Transportation and Communication and the city government of Alaminos, Pangasinan for the purchase of a tract of land where an international airport would be built.
Given the floodings of roads leading to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the relative safety of Pangasinan from floodings – spared as it was by Ondoy – the airport project made a most feasible option, and a serious competition, if not a direct threat to the DMIA.
To be built in a 158-hectare area, the airport project – so DOTC said — will have three development phases at a cost of P3.9 billion: Phase 1 set for completion in 2012 with the facility opening as a domestic airport; Phase 2 consists of upgrading in 2017; and Phase 3, its full development as an international airport by 2022.
The airport will be complemented by a seaport that will be established in nearby Sual town, DOTC furthered.
Alaminos Mayor Hernani Braganza – per the news report – was above Cloud 9 in saying that DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza himself noted that his city was the best place for an international airport because it is within the five-hour flying time to other Asia-Pacific countries.
“Travel time in and out of the Philippines to other Asian countries is five hours, which is good for trading. It makes an ideal hub of cargo and agricultural produce of Northern Luzon,” Braganza quoted Mendoza as saying.
I can’t help but notice some very familiar phrases being mouthed there. What used to be said of the DMIA were being now appended to this planned Pangasinan airport.
One: the seaport complementation of Subic to the airport in Clark, the perfect synergy as Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council Sec. Ed Pamintuan is wont to say, is now compacted in Pangasinan.
Two: travel time in and out of Clark to and from Asian countries at an average of four to five hours – DMIA honcho Chichos Luciano’s very mantra in his product sales and road shows – now arrogated unto the Pangasinan airport.
Question: Is this Pangasinan international airport going to supplant the DMIA?
Answer: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a pipsqueak coming out of the Clark International Airport Corp. on the issue.
Thus, in a perverse way, Typhoon Pepeng – by flooding Pangasinan – provided its own answer as it showed the folly of building an airport in that province.
There is only the DMIA – virtually flood-proof at over 400 feet above sea level, its parallel runways being the best in the country.
More than that, Typhoon Pepeng displayed the stupidity of government to be willing to spend to waste what and where it can allot for betterment. The P3.9 billion earmarked for this Pangasinan airport will be more than enough to build the sorely needed Terminal 2 of the DMIA that will pump prime it to its deserved status as the country’s premier international gateway.
It’s time the CIAC stood up for the DMIA against all these threats to its full operationalization, to fight all perils to the very fulfillment of its destined role as the country’s foremost airport.
Else, we may as well re-christen the DMIA to Dead Macapagal International Airport. And CIAC contenting itself to selling Lakeshore as premier retirement community in the Philippines.
That’s really no tall order, ain’t it, EVP Alex Cauguiran?
How? Why? Read on.
On September 30, with Metro Manila still gripped by and griping over the aftereffects of tropical storm Ondoy, came the news of a P135-million agreement between the Department of Transportation and Communication and the city government of Alaminos, Pangasinan for the purchase of a tract of land where an international airport would be built.
Given the floodings of roads leading to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the relative safety of Pangasinan from floodings – spared as it was by Ondoy – the airport project made a most feasible option, and a serious competition, if not a direct threat to the DMIA.
To be built in a 158-hectare area, the airport project – so DOTC said — will have three development phases at a cost of P3.9 billion: Phase 1 set for completion in 2012 with the facility opening as a domestic airport; Phase 2 consists of upgrading in 2017; and Phase 3, its full development as an international airport by 2022.
The airport will be complemented by a seaport that will be established in nearby Sual town, DOTC furthered.
Alaminos Mayor Hernani Braganza – per the news report – was above Cloud 9 in saying that DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza himself noted that his city was the best place for an international airport because it is within the five-hour flying time to other Asia-Pacific countries.
“Travel time in and out of the Philippines to other Asian countries is five hours, which is good for trading. It makes an ideal hub of cargo and agricultural produce of Northern Luzon,” Braganza quoted Mendoza as saying.
I can’t help but notice some very familiar phrases being mouthed there. What used to be said of the DMIA were being now appended to this planned Pangasinan airport.
One: the seaport complementation of Subic to the airport in Clark, the perfect synergy as Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council Sec. Ed Pamintuan is wont to say, is now compacted in Pangasinan.
Two: travel time in and out of Clark to and from Asian countries at an average of four to five hours – DMIA honcho Chichos Luciano’s very mantra in his product sales and road shows – now arrogated unto the Pangasinan airport.
Question: Is this Pangasinan international airport going to supplant the DMIA?
Answer: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a pipsqueak coming out of the Clark International Airport Corp. on the issue.
Thus, in a perverse way, Typhoon Pepeng – by flooding Pangasinan – provided its own answer as it showed the folly of building an airport in that province.
There is only the DMIA – virtually flood-proof at over 400 feet above sea level, its parallel runways being the best in the country.
More than that, Typhoon Pepeng displayed the stupidity of government to be willing to spend to waste what and where it can allot for betterment. The P3.9 billion earmarked for this Pangasinan airport will be more than enough to build the sorely needed Terminal 2 of the DMIA that will pump prime it to its deserved status as the country’s premier international gateway.
It’s time the CIAC stood up for the DMIA against all these threats to its full operationalization, to fight all perils to the very fulfillment of its destined role as the country’s foremost airport.
Else, we may as well re-christen the DMIA to Dead Macapagal International Airport. And CIAC contenting itself to selling Lakeshore as premier retirement community in the Philippines.
That’s really no tall order, ain’t it, EVP Alex Cauguiran?
