LEAVING SOON | Philippine Air Force units at the Air Force City in the Clark Freeport in Pampanga will soon move out and find new stations as the government builds another runway for Clark International Airport. (Photo by TONETTE OREJAS / Inquirer Central Luzon)
CLARK FREEPORT — The relocation of six Philippine Air Force (PAF) units out of this economic hub will take place soon to give way to a second runway at Clark International Airport (CRK) here, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) Chair Delfin Lorenzana said.
“[The relocation plan] is being tackled by the BCDA board, and it is going to be resolved soon because a second runway will be built within [PAF’s] Air Force City,” Lorenzana told the Inquirer on Tuesday during the BCDA fellowship for Central Luzon media at Hilton Clark.
He said the new runway, which will be funded by the BCDA, spans 2.5 kilometers, without giving more details, including the start of the construction period.
The old Clark Air Base Command used to secure Clark Air Base until 1991, when the United States Air Force pulled out weeks before Mt. Pinatubo’s June 15 eruption that year.
Since then, two-thirds of PAF units have been transferred to Clark from other major camps and Basa Air Base in Floridablanca town in Pampanga, which is within a 20-km radius of the volcano.
These are the 600th Air Base Wing, 410th Maintenance Wing, 420th Supply Wing, 710th Special Operations Wing, Air Force Logistics Command, and Air Force Reserve Command, occupying more than 300 hectares next to CRK, including barracks, houses, and the Air Force City, formerly called the Haribon.
He said the possible relocation sites are within the Basa Air Base or the New Clark City, a 9,500-hectare government property being administered and developed by the BCDA, the mother agency of the state-owned Clark Development Corp. and the Clark International Airport Corp.
The BCDA put in P10.3 billion to fund the P15-billion new passenger terminal of CRK, which has been operated by the private consortium Lipad since 2019.
The government originally planned to complete the transfer of the PAF units to Subic Bay Freeport in Bataan and Zambales provinces in 2016 for better territorial defense, but this did not materialize.