CLARK International Airport Corporation (Ciac) officials have been pushing for a comprehensive airport development program that would include connectivity with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in Metro Manila, with Subic’s seaport through the recently-completed Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

The plan also included the establishment of a new and passenger terminal that will be capable of processing seven million passengers per year.

This plan, originally intended to be completed before Arroyo steps down from office in June 2010, was stalled due to failed biddings. Public biddings for government projects such as airports are required under the law.

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Luciano said Ciac is currently negotiating with a Kuwaiti company for a possible joint venture undertaking. The provisions of a possible joint venture agreement will be published for a “competitive challenge” where other interested proponents would have the right to “match or better the offer and terms” within 45 to 60 days.

He said that this mode is aimed at generating the best benefits for the government and in keeping the best interest of the general public.

Economic ventures

Operating the DMIA means more than having domestic and international flights for passengers and cargo.

Ciac is also mandated to create business opportunities inside the 2,500-hectare aviation complex. This means generating investment projects that translate to jobs and livelihood sources.

It’s part of the whole gamut in fulfilling the vision to establish a competitive logistics hub.

One of the biggest projects at the aviation complex is the development of the US$1.025-billion Global Gateway Logistics City (GGLC), a single investment that is expected to create 70,000 jobs when fully operational.

The 167-hectare GGLC which broke ground in August last year is a project of the Kuwait Gulf and Links (KGL) and Peregrine Development International.

GGLC will host aviation-related businesses including but not limited to warehousing, distribution, multi-nodal logistics, and, light industries.

It would have four zones: The Logistics Park, The Business Park, The Campus and The Town Center. The Logistics Park will cater to warehousing, distribution and light manufacturing operations while The Business Park will be a modern site for offices and regional headquarters.

The Campus will be a research and development complex that will be a host to IT education and other higher learning and technical competencies.

The Town Center will cap the business cum pleasure and complete sound environment of GGLC as it will offer commercial retail, shopping malls and other recreational facilities.

Luciano said GGLC is expected usher in the very first Aerotropolis in the Philippines where top businesses in logistics operations can converge and thrive.

Aside from GGLC, DMIA is host to scores of renowned aviation firms including SIA Engineering (SIAE), a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Engineering Company.

SIAE is set to operate its US$19-million Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul hangar in partnership with Cebu Pacific.

It will provide heavy and maintenance checks for narrow and wide-bodied aircraft such as the Airbus A320, Boeing 747 and B777s. This project will employ about 1,100 highly skilled Filipino specialists.

Other projects in the pipeline include more flights that will be mounted by Spirit of Manila Airlines for flights to Taipei, Taiwan and the Middle East; Zest Air for flights to Hong Kong; and, Korean Airlines for flights to Incheon, South Korea.

Looking back

DMIA was the site of the former MAC (Military Airlift Command) Terminal of the US Air Force. During the stay of American troops, it served in-coming and out-bound civilian and military personnel of the United States, including Vietnamese who were evacuated from their war torn country in the late 1960s.

It was also the airport that received of former American Prisoners of War from the infamous Vietnam conflict. Among the hundreds of POWs that were taken and processed to Clark en route to their return to the US mainland was former US Senator and presidential candidate John McCain who was held captive for five years in North Vietnam.

Prior to officially becoming as Clark Air Base by virtue of the 1947 Military Bases Agreement between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States, this aviation complex was also known as Clark Air Field and a part of the Fort Stotsenburg of the US Cavalry in the early 1900s.

CAB figured prominently in the Edsa People Power I as it served as the stopover for the Marcoses on their way to Hawaii after being plucked out from Malacanang Palace in February 1986.

CAB used to host and service US military aircraft ranging from C-5 Galaxies (the largest US military cargo plane until the 1990s), reconnaissance aircraft, and, fighter jets such as F-4 Phantoms, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-14 Tomcats and F-15 Eagles.

The aviation complex has two parallel runways which are 2.5 kilometers in length, with provisions for a third runway. The second runway built by the Americans shortly before they left was designed to be an alternate landing strip for US Space Shuttles. With the vastness of runways, taxiways and ramp area, an Airbus A380 – the largest passenger aircraft in the world today -– made a stopover at DMIA last year in its trial world run.

When the American troops left Clark by virtue of the Philippine Senate’s rejection of a proposed treaty that would have extended their stay in military bases in the country, only aircraft of the Philippine Air Force – most of them Huey Helicopters -- flew over the skies of Clark.

Except for occasional landings by visiting or transient foreign aircraft, the aviation complex of the former CAB remained practically birdless and silent.

This reality existed even up to the time when Philippine authorities assumed management and operation of the former military aviation complex in 1993.

The Philippine government first named it Clark International Airport (CIA) only to be renamed as DMIA in 2003 on the initiative of then president of Clark Development Corporation Emmanuel Angeles, concurrent head of Ciac during those days.

Today, DMIA has a passenger terminal that was recently rehabilitated that doubled its capacity to two million passengers per year.

Currently, Ciac is embarking on an ambitious plan to build and complete DMIA Terminal II in the next 12 months. When completed, this new and bigger building would service three to seven million passengers annually.

Published in the Sun.Star Pampanga newspaper on September 12, 2009.