Clark employees demand details of privatization

Some of Clark employees at the prayer rally —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CLARK FREEPORT—Close to 300 employees of the state-run Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) staged a prayer rally during their lunch break on Friday, pressing the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to explain a supposed privatization plan for the Clark International Airport (CRK).

“We want to know what is going to happen to us employees and to CIAC under the so-called privatization plan,” said Manuel Bañez, president of the Samahan ng mga Manggagawa ng DMIA (SMD), which led the vigil. DMIA, or Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, was the former name of CRK.

SMD is composed of 273 regular employees. CIAC has 315 employees. Most of the employees had worked for CIAC for 23 years.

3rd rally

This was the third prayer rally held in front of the CIAC president’s office since Jan. 25.

Bañez said BCDA president, Vivencio Dizon, replied to one of SMD’s three letters but did not give details about the form of privatization and employment terms.

He said Dizon met with SMD leaders in August 2017 and first mentioned the prospect of employees being rehired should a private company win a contract to manage and operate CRK.

Dizon was in China and had not issued a comment. CIAC president and chief executive officer, Alexander Cauguran, said the agency that should address the issue was the BCDA board. But none of the BCDA directors met with employees after the meeting on Thursday, Bañez said.

In the dark

CRK, occupying 2,376 hectares here, used to be a facility of the US 13th Air Force in the then Clark Air Base. The Philippine government converted the airport for civilian use starting in 1992,  a year after the Philippine Senate rejected the extension of the Military Bases Agreement with the United States.

“We are not against privatization. We support the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program of the government but where are we CIAC employees in this development program?” Bañez said.

Employees said they became uncertain of their future at CIAC in December when the government started the construction of a new passenger terminal at CRK. The P15-billion project, due for completion in 2020, is funded by the BCDA (P12.55 billion) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) (P2.9 billion).

Duterte EO

Through Executive Order  No. 14 in February 2017, President Duterte made CIAC a subsidiary of the BCDA but placed the policy supervision and operational control of CRK under the DOTr.

CIAC used to be overseen by  Clark Development Corp. (CDC) in 1994, but was later placed under the supervision of the BCDA, merged with CDC and transferred to what was then the Department of Transportation and Communications Technology. —TONETTE OREJAS