JDV urges ‘open skies’ for cargo flights to Clark airport

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has proposed an "open skies" policy for international cargo planes at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Angeles City.

Addressing a gathering of Jaycees over the weekend at the Clark Special Economic Zone, De Venecia said such a policy for cargo could precede a similar program for passenger traffic.

"It’s part of the strategy of opening up the Philippines and developing an open-door program not only for commerce and industry but also for tourism and the movement of goods, services and manpower," he said.

He said an "open skies" for cargo planes would immediately result in more aircraft using Clark and would be a boost to allied service sectors.

The Philippines recently urged the United States to defer for another 10 years the implementation of an open skies agreement for passenger traffic, citing a possible US attack on Iraq.

De Venecia also proposed that the use of Clark and the Laoag International Airport be maximized for the transport of millions of overseas Filipino workers coming from Central and Northern Luzon.

He said these workers should be allowed to fly directly from Clark or Laoag to their destinations and vice versa instead of being routed through other airports.

This could hasten the development of the Clark and Laoag airports, he said.

He noted that 60 percent of the more than seven million OFWs come from Central and Northern Luzon.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives will step into the rift between the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and Clark Development Corp. (CDC) over a planned shopping mall inside the Clark Special Economic Zone in Angeles City.

Rep. Oscar Rodriguez (Lakas, Pampanga) said he and Central Luzon colleagues would inquire into the quarrel of the two agencies and thereafter delineate their powers and functions in a bill that would amend the law governing the conversion and development of former military bases.

He said the interest of their constituents is at stake in the Shoemart mall project, which he feared could go against the overall Clark development plan and could congest the main highway leading to the freeport zone.

According to Rodriguez, the CDC has approved the mall project, to be located near Clark’s Salakot’s entrance, the main gate to Clark, without consulting the BCDA.

The main entrance is only about 500 meters away from MacArthur Highway, a principal but congested commuter and cargo transport artery in Central Luzon.

The BCDA is not opposed to the project but wants its site away from traffic congestion areas and from future facilities to be built in Clark and its environs like the Clark-Subic highway and other access roads from Bulacan, Tarlac, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, and Pangasinan.

There were reports in the past that Shoemart was eyeing the costly Clark white elephant that is the Expo 2002 site which is several miles away from the freeport’s main gate.