CLARK FREEPORT—The transfer of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) from the Office of the President to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) augurs well for the long-delayed development of the Clark aviation complex into the country’s premier international airport.
Victor Jose Luciano, CIAC president and chief executive officer, said President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 64 implementing the transfer “ushers a new day for the CIAC.”
“Since 1994, Clark has been touted as the country’s international gateway but the reality is that in the past the national government has given ambivalent response to its plans,” Luciano said.
He said it was to the credit of the DOTC that Clark secured 30 air entitlements with other countries that are now Clark’s proprietary rights.
“We welcome DOTC’s taking a more aggressive role and development of the CIAC,” he said.
Reynaldo Catacutan, vice president for airport management operations, said the transfer will “work parallel to the plan to transfer the (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) to Clark if it is under DOTC.”
“This is good for CIAC,” Catacutan said.
In EO 64, Mr. Aquino also ordered the transfer of CIAC stocks to the DOTC.
Signed by Mr. Aquino on Dec. 21, the EO ended the erratic life of a state-owned firm managing a facility, which the administration of the late President Corazon Aquino had identified as key to the conversion of the last seven United States military bases for civilian use.
The other facility prioritized by the late president was the seaport of the present Subic Bay Freeport.
Created in 1994, the CIAC was a subsidiary of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and was then placed under the oversight of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
Authorities also tried to merge the CIAC and CDC as an experimental approach to managing the former base lands. Government later placed the CIAC under the administrative supervision and control of the Manila International Airport Authority. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon