Gov't to make Clark premier int'l airport

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino government is moving the premier international airport in Metro Manila to Clark in Pampanga.

This major policy decision was announced Thursday by transportation czar Manuel Roxas II during a luncheon conference organized by the joint foreign chambers in the Philippines held in a Makati hotel.

“It may take us five to seven years to do it. Building the basic infrastructure may take a shorter time. But moving the airlines, the logistics companies and other support services companies may take that much time, “Roxas explained.

He told his audience of mostly top executives of multinational companies with operations in the Philippines that the idea is not a novel one as most of the dynamic economies in the Asian region led by Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore had moved their airports and seaports out of their big cities.

The country’s premier international and domestic airport, he said, has a maximum capacity between two and three million passengers a year. It has exceeded the two million mark and is close to reaching its saturation point.

In the interim, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) that Roxas heads has started rehabilitating Terminals 1 and 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to meet international standards.

Both terminals, he revealed, have been found by airport experts to have structural defects that need to be retrofitted. The repairs must be done without disrupting air traffic and passenger movement to and from the airport.

The NAIA complex will then be sold for development as part of the central commercial districts in Metro Manila. At a price of P30,000 per square meter, it will pay for the cost of the modernization of the international airport at Clark.

As part of the transfer plan, the government has started renegotiating with China the term of reference in building the North Rail Transit System.

He said that his office found that the original plan for the North Rail project was to build a high-speed railway system from Metro Manila to the Clark Freeport as part of the support infrastructure in making Clark the premier airport of the country.

In the implementing stage, the railway was made into a one-rail commuter train system that will only reach part of Bulacan which no longer serves the purpose of moving people from the new international airport to and from Metro Manila.

Roxas said the Aquino administration is going back to the original plan of building a high-speed railway system that will take only 45 minutes to move passengers from Clark to Metro Manila and back.