Clark stakeholders mount protest vs EO

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The move for the scrapping of an executive order issued by Malacañang last August has gathered more steam among stakeholders of the Clark special economic zone who fear that it would cripple the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here.

Frankie Villanueva, president of the Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA), said his group is set to issue a resolution asking President Arroyo to scrap Executive Order 500-A issued last Aug. 22, which amended EO 500 which she issued last Jan. 27.

He said the amending order "imposes restrictions on the available airline market for the DMIA" and would therefore make the airport "less attractive as a regional hub."

Pampanga provincial board member Tarcisio Halili and Angeles City councilor Lito Ganzon said they, too, would author resolutions urging the President to reconsider EO 500-A.

At a forum here over the weekend, Ben Solis, former general manager of the United Parcels Service (UPS), said the President might have been misled into signing EO 500-B to amend EO 500 which fully liberalized the DMIA operations of foreign airlines from countries with which the Philippines has air service agreements.

Officials of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said that under EO 500-A, only foreign carriers formally designated by their home countries could be entitled to liberalized polices at the DMIA.

CIAC president Jose Victor Luciano admitted that EO 500-A would stall plans of Singapore-based Tiger Airways to put up a $300-million hub and base at least six new Airbus 320s here by January next year, since it is not a designated carrier like other foreign airlines now operating at the DMIA.

Solis cited reports that "someone" from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) crafted EO 500-A purportedly to "raise the level of competency and safety of airlines."

But the amendment also contained a provision limiting liberalized policies at the DMIA, as well as at the Subic Bay International Air port (SBIA), to carriers designated by their home countries.

Luciano said Tiger Airways alone was expected to generate almost 10 million passengers over a five-year period and expand its network to cover routes between Clark and Thailand, Macau, China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia and, possibly, Vietnam and Australia.

All these plans would come to naught under EO 500-A, said Solis, who is now a CIAC consultant.

Caesar Lacson, chairman of the Society of Pampanga Columnists, described EO 500-A as a "nightmare" for residents of Pampanga and the rest of Central Luzon since the President vowed to transform Clark into a major Asian economic hub as legacy to her cabalen.

Secretary Renato Diaz, presidential adviser for North Luzon, virtually blamed the issuance of EO 500-A on a local carrier and lambasted the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for "entertaining" its objections to the operations of foreign airlines at the DMIA.

"Why do we have to develop Clark if after all, we still have to go to Manila to fly from there?" he asked.

CIAC vice president Romeo Dyoco said the DMIA now hosts 77 passenger and cargo flights weekly and that if EO 500-A is scrapped, the number is expected to reach 80 per week by yearend.

UPS, Pacific East Asia Cargo Airlines, and Yangtze River Express are among the cargo airlines operating here. UPS has put up its hub at the Clark ecozone.

As of last August, cargo volume at Clark had reached 11,800 tons, Dyoco said.

He said the DMIA hosts at least 40 international and domestic flights per week, and the number is expected to reach 70 should more carriers be allowed to come in.

He said the current number of flights at the DMIA represents a 417 percent increase from only 230 flights in 2004. Last year, there were 1,188 flights.

Dyoco said the CIAC expects at least 2,500 international and domestic flights at the DMIA by yearend.

He said the DMIA terminal, which is up for expansion, processed 302,939 passengers from January to August this year, or an average of 37,867 passengers per month. In 2005, the average number of passengers was only 23,067 per month, he added.

Dyoco said EO 500-A proposes a maximum 30-day processing by the CAB of applications for combined international passenger-cargo transport service to and from DMIA and the SBIA and the scheduling of consultation talks within one year with, among others, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Republic of Korea to formalize or recognize the unilateral grant of traffic rights.