WWF head says Cavite airport plan is ‘crazy’

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—An environmentalist on Thursday called as “crazy” an unsolicited proposal by one of the country’s biggest corporations to build a $10-billion airport in Cavite province that would serve as an alternative to the aging and decrepit Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in Pasay City.

Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, chief executive officer of the environmental group World Wide Fund Philippines (WWF), said the proposal by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to build an airport in Cavite “doesn’t make sense.”

“Remember what happened to Tacloban City,” said Tan, during a forum on climate change in this Pampanga capital.

At the height of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” in November last year, storm surges destroyed equipment and facilities of the Tacloban airport that was beside the sea, Tan said. Parts of the airport stand on land that is below sea level.

Clark waiting

“Clark is waiting,” Tan said, referring to Clark International Airport north of here. All that are needed in Clark, he noted, are new terminals and equipment.

Clark also needs all-weather roads or a railway because portions of the North Luzon Expressway in Valenzuela suffer from flooding due to an inefficient drainage system, Tan said.

He said Clark airport spans some 2,700 hectares, much bigger than the 900-hectare site being eyed in Cavite where reclamation work would take 15 years.

Interviewed after the forum, Tan described the airstrip in Clark as “one of the best in Asia.” Back in the days when the United States Air Force rented Clark, the Americans used it as a backup airstrip for a space shuttle, Tan said, adding that the airport’s two parallel strips were designed for large aircraft.

Airlines operating at Naia have complained of incurring P7 billion in losses due to congestion there.

Tan said the government could build another airstrip beside Naia in two years at 1/20th of SMC’s project cost.

Not 15 years

“The point I am trying to make is there are alternatives that are cheaper, that can be more quickly rolled up into place and will certainly benefit the people much sooner. You don’t have to wait 15 years,” he said.

In the same forum, Tan said it was best for outlying provinces to decentralize from Metro Manila, to promote climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

He said cities, towns and villages will have to undertake climate-smart and site-specific steps to be able to protect lives, agriculture, infrastructure and businesses. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon