Arroyo advice: Make Clark ‘really different from the rest of the country’
CLARK FREEPORT—Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now presidential adviser on Clark programs and projects, has recommended turning the remaining 1,500 hectares of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) into the most competitive service and logistics center in Southeast Asia.
“When you do a masterplan, maybe you can think of how that service and logistics center vision can be promoted operationally,” Arroyo was quoted as saying in a statement released by CIAC president Aaron Aquino on Monday (Dec. 14).
“It is an exciting challenge because there’s something that you’re going to do to make the Clark airport area really different from the rest of the country,” Arroyo said, according to the statement.
Aquino, former chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said Arroyo made the recommendation at a briefing last Dec. 10.
“We are honored by the specific paradigm shift advice” from Arroyo, said Aquino, who became CIAC head last June. “It is consistent with our mandate to develop and attain a world-class civil aviation complex inside Clark,” Aquino said.
More than 800 hectares of land assigned to the CIAC has been placed under the Luzon International Premier Airport Development (LIPAD), the consortium operating and managing the Clark International Airport.
CIAC is updating its masterplan for the aviation complex, Aquino said.
The complex hosts FedEx Express and 45 other locators engaged in manufacturing, mixed-use commercial hubs, business process outsourcing, renewable energy, cargo, and aviation-related industries.
