BCDA gets P700M to build new site for PAF houses

CLARK FREEPORT — The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has received an allotment of P700 million to start the relocation site and houses for Philippine Air Force personnel from this free port to the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, an official announced on Tuesday.

Joshua Bingcang, BCDA president and chief executive officer, said the amount from the national government would also cover the cost of transferring the PAF units to the adjacent OMNI Flying School.

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The entire PAF area in Clark consists of 300 hectares (ha)—100 ha for the housing area and 200 ha for the operational facilities of seven units—all around the former passenger terminal of Clark International Airport.

The BCDA needs P2 billion more to construct new buildings and the 200-ha commercial business district in the areas occupied by the PAF, Bingcang said.

Timeline

According to the BCDA official, the agency is setting aside 85 ha for the new houses, while the airport’s second runway will be built on 100 ha.

“The actual transfer may take place after two to three years,” he added.

From just being utilized by the PAF’s Clark Air Base Command when Clark was rented by the United States Air Force, more PAF units moved in after the American government closed Clark in 1991 on the heels of the Philippine Senate’s decision rejecting the extension of the country’s military bases agreement with the United States and Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption that same year.

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Since then, two-thirds of the PAF’s units have been transferred to Clark from other major camps and the Basa Air Base in Floridablanca town in Pampanga, which is within the 20-kilometer radius of Mt. Pinatubo. 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.

Bingcang said the BCDA and the PAF agreed on the relocation plans through a memorandum of agreement in 2018.

Republic Act No. 7227, or the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, tasked the BCDA with overseeing the former American-run baselands that span over 70,000 ha in Luzon.

The PAF officials have not publicly opposed the relocation.