I was one of those who experienced the hellish traffic last Friday. What used to be 45-minute ride from our place in Santa Rosa, Laguna, to Arnaiz Avenue in Makati on a midmorning road trip turned into a two-hour bumper-to-bumper travel.
We also noticed that the southbound traffic going to the airport was at a standstill, converting the road leading to Villamor into a virtual parking lot. I could just imagine the stress of those who had booked for air travel, only to miss their respective flights.
From former President Corazon C. Aquino’s time to the current administration of President Duterte’s (who, by the way, boasted during the presidential campaign that he would solve the Metro Manila’s nightmarish traffic in three months), experts have regularly raised the alarm that, unless Metro Manila is decongested, land and air traffic would persist and worsen. Actually, we didn’t need a prophet to predict the gargantuan traffic nightmare that the commuting and motoring public confront every day.
Some of the solutions that need urgent actions are the construction of new roads (which is now slowly being addressed by Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program) and the construction of a new airport outside of Metro Manila.
There are moneyed groups—such as those headed by “frenemies” Manuel V. Pangilinan of the First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp.—that have expressed interest in either improving the Clark International Airport or building new ones. The Duterte administration, however, would rather undertake the construction of a new airport on its own.
The Pangilinan group’s offer covers only Clark’s expansion, operations and maintenance which the government is likely to approve since it deems this project to be smaller in scope and could be left in the hands of the private sector. Ang’s proposal to build an entirely new airport in Bulacan, however, runs counter to this administration’s decision to do away with the public-private partnership (PPP) route, which I believe would be more beneficial to the government.
Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade rationalizes the junking of the PPP. He says a negotiated deal between government to government is the faster course and a better option to facing delays that may emerge with public biddings concerning the private sector.
We could not emphasize enough, however, the urgency of building an entirely new airport. BusinessWise believes that only Clark offers the best location.
Through the years, only one domestic and three international terminals have been built at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), with the frequency of plane arrivals and departures at only 40 an hour. Naia has only one long runway, crossed by a shorter one. Building another runway is now a daunting task because the peripheral areas have been converted to residential areas. There is just simply no more space for growth on Naia’s 6.7
hectares of land.
In contrast, Clark’s has over 4,000 hectares with two giant runways built by the US Air Force for its 13th Air Force which hosted giant bombers and jet fighters in World War II, the Korean and Vietnam War. Its runaways could even house the US Space Shuttle.
The best time for every single major new airport construction, from conceptualization to first flight, is seven years. Conceding that an airport’s location could be anywhere anyone wants to build it, it will never see the first landing for a minimum of another seven, or more likely, 10 years. So, what is to be done over the next seven to 10 years?
The year-old Duterte administration, no matter how aggressively it pursues the construction of a new airport, will find it impossible to build one. Promotion and expanded use of Clark (and the ports of Subic and Batangas) to get the northbound traffic from the Naia, and the trucks bound for the port of Manila totally off Edsa is really a no brainer. Our country needs more than two airports. Most of the major cities today have two, even three or more major airports actively servicing its people. Even with Clark and/or another new airport located in the south, the Naia should continue to operate.
What we are saying here is that it doesn’t mean that the government should focus on the Clark Freeport alone. The country still needs the Naia and another airport. In this respect, I believe that the proposal of San Miguel Corp. to construct another airport is still viable.
The main beef of those against having the Clark Freeport as a host to the new airport is its distance from Metro Manila. Admittedly, this is a myopic view, considering that not all air travelers reside in the metropolis. A high-speed railway to connect Clark to Metro Manila is not only expensive but problematic, as well since right-of-way issues are bound to hound its construction.
There are many misconceptions related to the benefits of high-speed rail transport. In effect, anyone living in Makati City and nearby areas could still use the Naia, in much the same way that a resident in Washington, D.C., can use National, Dulles or BWI, or an individual living in New York could use JFK, La Guardia or Newark.
There are over 23 million people living in the Clark Catchment Basin. Do you live, time-wise, closer to Clark or the Naia? The catchment is comprised of those who live in Regions 1, 2, CAR and 3, and the northern environs of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela. Now, consider how each of these 23 million-plus residents will be forced to travel on Edsa to get to the Naia, when it would have been easier to fly in and out of Clark? Similarly, the $6 billion in exports from Clark, not to mention other shipments going to or from the catchment basin, by and large, go in and out of the port of Manila because of insufficient use of the port of Subic (where similar situations can be found in the port of Batangas and Southern Luzon).
Every passenger vehicle and cargo truck in the catchment basin, diverting to Clark or Subic, would be one less on the already overcrowded infrastructures of Metro Manila. The cost to the government is nothing more than political will. There is no downside to the expansion of the Clark airport (or either port). Quite the contrary, its growth would provide a variety of benefits, including a second major international gateway in Luzon as an alternative to the Naia, which would serve as a major metropolitan center to help alleviate Metro Manila congestion and provide an economic stimulus to the national economy. It would be a huge economic multiplier.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com.
1 comment
The proposed international airport by San Miguel Corporation in Bulakan is still the best option. Bulacan is much nearer to Metro Manila and he 2nd most populous province in the country. An airport in Bulacan will serve will not only serve the populace of the province but the populace of northern Metro Manila as well. Clark international Airport can serve the northern populace of Central Luzon, Ilocos Region, CAR, Cagayan Valley Region which is much nearer and within it’s periphery.