House panel OKs renaming of Clark airport to Diosdado Macapagal

Clark International Airport was named Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in 2001 but it was returned to its previous name. On Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, the House committee on transportation approved two bills that seek to rename it again to Diosdado Macapagal. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The committee on transportation of the House of Representatives approved on Wednesday two bills seeking to rename the Clark International Airport in Angeles City, Pampanga, to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.

Panel chair and Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento said the proposed measures had the support of the provincial government of Pampanga and the Pampangueños.

“This bill, which has the support of the Provincial Government of Pampanga and the Pampangueños, will institutionalize the old name of the airport in honor of the Former President and his accomplishments and contributions to the country,” Sarmiento said during his opening speech at the hearing on House Bill Nos. 2274 and 8289.

The lawmaker also said it was already done before in 2001 by the Board of Directors of the Clark Development Corporation, but it decided to revert back to the old name.

Macapagal was the ninth president of the Philippines and the first from Pampanga. He is the father of former-President-turned-Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She became Speaker of the House on July 23 this year, replacing Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.

Pampanga 3rd District Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. filed HB 2274, while House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur 1st District Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., Sagip Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo Lazatin II, and Bohol 3rd District Rep. Arthur Yap filed the second bill.

HB 2274 has been pending before the committee since Aug. 8, 2016, while HB 8289 was filed Sept. 25, 2018.

The Clark International Airport formed part of the former Clark Air Base of the United States Air Force until its closure in 1991, Gonzales said in his explanatory note of the bill.

By virtue of Republic Act 7227, or the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, former President Fidel Ramos converted it into Clark Special Economic Zone and established the Clark International Airport Corporation to manage it.

The Air Base was named in honor of Major Harold Clark of the US Army Signal Corps who died in a seaplane in the Panama Canal in 1919, he added. /cbb