The Covid-19 pandemic has virtually put foreign and local direct investments on hold, across the world. When people are scared to leave the house, both productivity and profitability suffer, and the cost of doing business is high enough to include one’s life.
Yet, no virus can stand in the way of San Miguel Corp.’s plan to build an international airport and airport city within the year. Businessman Ramon See Ang, president and COO of San Miguel, said he is more determined than ever to pursue the construction, development and operation of a world-class international and domestic airport in the rustic town of Bulakan, Bulacan. The conglomerate will shoulder all the costs and assume the risks for the airport project pegged at P734 billion.
“Not a centavo of taxpayers’ money will be spent on this project and we all stand to gain as Filipinos. Despite the economic downturn caused by the pandemic that has significantly affected all businesses, including us, we are even more determined now to push through with the airport project. This will immediately generate hundreds of thousands of jobs that so many Filipinos need today, especially those who have lost their jobs, or have come home from other countries because of the economic slump. This is not the time to hold back on investments. This is the time to go all-in for our country,” the philanthropist/tycoon known by his initials, “RSA,” told this writer.
RSA also gained public admiration for declaring publicly that San Miguel commits to paying the salaries of all of its workers, absorbing the costs despite the sharp downturn in the economy. Recently, he once again made the news when he announced his plans to build a
state-of-the-art hospital and research center for infectious diseases. It seems that this man of three letters have an alphabet soup of dreams, and is dedicated towards venturing in uncharted waters for the sake of the common good. That he is a businessman is a given, and making profit while contributing to your country’s welfare is a blessing that very few can claim to have.
Despite all obstacles, with some yet to come, the former pilot turned tycoon has set his heart on building the airport in a Bulacan district known for its floods. I live in that district, and have my own nightmares to share about wading in brown, smelly floodwater. My mother and namesake, Susana, who is in her young 90s, cannot even go down to the ground floor of our house during high tide because of the steady and rising stream of water from the street to our living room.
Apparently, the combination of a global pandemic and constant floods are not enough to diminish RSA’s interest in the airport project. His company has embarked on a new initiative that involves the planting of 25,000 mangrove trees in a 10-hectare coastal area in my hometown of Hagonoy, Bulacan—the first phase of a total of 190,000 mangrove trees to be planted over 76 hectares in Bulacan and Central Luzon.
“This effort [to plant mangrove trees] is part of our larger flood-mitigation strategy for Bulacan. The first is our P1-billion plan to dredge and clean up the Tullahan-Tinajeros River System. This involves cleaning major river systems and tributaries that have been clogged up with garbage and sediment for so many decades, preventing flood waters from draining into the Manila Bay,” Ang said.
The plan also calls for the building of a coastal highway that will also serve as a spillway to keep the waters out. For how can any airport thrive and be of service to anyone, when travelers and planes need to wade through knee-deep if not waist-high waters? It doesn’t make sense for San Miguel to pour a trillion-peso in investments in an area that’s fit for submarines rather than planes. As designed, the new airport will have four parallel runways, eight taxiways and three passenger terminals. Designed to accommodate at least 100 million passengers a year, the New Manila International Airport will have enough room to accommodate all local and foreign travelers and the families that wish to send them off.
Already, training programs are underway for workers to be absorbed by this massive airport construction project. San Miguel says it is open to hiring qualified ex-OFWs as well as thousands of jobless Bulakenyos. On September 1, the House of Representatives approved a 50-year franchise for the airport. The Senate public services committee chaired by Senator Grace Poe is also scheduled to begin its hearings on the airport franchise.
With RSA’s dream moving forward, we can only wish him the best of luck. Personally, to see a non-Bulakenyo stake his money and name and reputation to build an airport in our home province is nothing short of inspiring.
The airport project is a colossal, private investment into the distant future, for our grandchildren and their own children to enjoy and be proud of. To plant its seeds today, when the world’s future is at its darkest, is such a daring act of hope by the humblest of men. RSA keeps teaching us to believe in ourselves, in our capacity to dream big, and to make the impossible, possible.
Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues. She also represents the OFW sector in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.
