GMA opens Rolls-Royce repair facility at Clark

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga – Aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce formally entered the country yesterday with the unveiling of a repair facility at this former US air base Friday with no less than President Arroyo serving as witness.

The British firm, which makes engines for planes and helicopters, put up the Rolls-Royce Engine Services Limitada, Inc. as a joint venture with the government-controlled Philippine Aero Development Corp. (PADC).

It aims to make its facility here initially as a one-stop shop for the repair and maintenance of Model 250 helicopter engines and later expand its operation to include bigger engines such as those in the Hercules C-130 aircraft.

The President unveiled the facility’s marker on the birthday of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal. The day was significant not only for Rolls-Royce but also for Clark Field whose international airport was officially renamed Diosdado Macapagal International Airport yesterday.

In her speech before Rolls-Royce officials and guests, Mrs. Arroyo expressed her elation over the British company’s decision to set up a repair shop on a 1,100-square-meter building inside the Berthaphil, Inc. compound here.

"We often use the term Rolls-Royce to signify the highest end, the highest standards of quality and elegance," she said. "When I see a beautiful industrial state, I say, ‘Wow, this is the Rolls-Royce of the industrial states.’ When you see a high-state computer school, you say, ‘Wow, this is the Rolls-Royce of computer schools’," she said.

"Now Clark will have the real McCoy because the real Rolls-Royce is here as a manufacturer."

The Rolls-Royce company gained prominence by making the most expensive cars in the world. However, it sold its car business – the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. – to German firm Volkswagen in 1998 and its Rolls-Royce name for the cars to BMW that same year. Beginning 2003, it will be BMW which will be making Rolls-Royce cars in a plant in England.

Ian Lloyd, managing director for aero repair and overhaul for Rolls-Royce, said the Clark facility will initially service government choppers and later expand to include those owned by private companies.

Rolls-Royce already has 16 engine repair shops in four continents of the world, with $1.6 billion in revenues. And Lloyd expects its Clark facility to benefit not only his company but the Philippine government as well.

The government reportedly spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the engines of its helicopters repaired abroad. With the Clark facility, which it partly owns, the government is deemed not only to save on repair cost but to earn from other customers as well.

The Rolls-Royce repair shop is set to start operation next week under Dave Schaffar, a British national. It will be manned by more than a dozen Filipino technicians who have trained for the past year in Oakland, California.