Renaming airport Aquino man’s idea

CLARK FREEPORT—A Liberal Party stalwart and President Benigno Aquino’s man in Clark is leading the campaign to remove the name of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, father of former president and detained Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, from the airport here.

Victor Jose Luciano, head of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), said lawyer Felipe Antonio Remollo, head of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), “initiated the move to restore the original name of the airport to Clark International Airport (CIA).”

Remollo is Mr. Aquino’s appointee, an LP stalwart in Dumaguete City and a close associate of Mar Roxas, defeated running mate of Mr. Aquino and appointed transportation secretary later.

It wasn’t immediately known, however, if Remollo is acting on direct orders by the President.

Luciano made the revelation for the first time in a briefing called by the Pampanga Mayors’ League (PML) on Friday to address protests at Angeles City over the airport’s change of name from Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) to CIA.

The CIAC board approved Remollo’s proposal, according to a copy of the board resolution furnished the mayors but which was not made public.

Remollo sits concurrently as vice chair and acting chair of the CIAC.

He was expected to attend the PML forum but failed to make it on time, the Inquirer was told.

Last Tuesday, the Angeles City council passed a resolution asking Congress to enact a law officially naming the Clark airport after Macapagal, the country’s ninth president who hailed from Lubao, Pampanga. He died in 1997.

In another resolution, the Angeles council opposed the move to remove the name of Macapagal from the facility.

Both resolutions were sponsored by Councilor Edu Pamintuan, son of Angeles Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, a close ally of Arroyo. The council approved these resolutions unanimously.

It said the basis of the name DMIA “is important to the people of Pampanga as it honors one of its most respected leaders.” It described Macapagal as the father of land reform and “one of the better presidents this country ever had.”

The council stressed that the name Clark, after aviation pioneer Major Harold M. Clark, has “no known ties to the Philippines.”

“Dropping DMIA in favor of ‘Clark’ is not justified,” the council resolution said.

But the CIAC board resolution said that reverting to the name CIA would “enhance its international acceptance. Tonette Orejas and Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon