Palace OKs release of P1.2 B for new Clark airport terminal

By Ding Cervantes

CLARK FREEPORT – A new French-designed modern airport passenger terminal will rise at Clark International Airport after Malacañang approved the release of the needed P1.2 billion for the project.

The terms of reference for the project, which will cost P15 billion, are now being prepared for bidding, Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president and chief executive officer Emigdio Tanjuatco said.

“President Aquino devoted four hours asking questions and listening to justifications for the terminal,” Tanjuatco said.

He said the President just did not want the terminal ending up as a white elephant, especially because he is from Central Luzon which hosts Clark airport.

Aquino was briefed on the proposed terminal’s benefits to the people of Central and Northern Luzon, as well as on how it could absorb the shortcomings of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

“We also told him that larger airlines would be easier to convince to establish regular flights at Clark with a more modern and bigger passenger terminal,” Tanjuatco said.

The P1.2 billion will be for the first phase of the new terminal to increase Clark airport’s capacity from four million to seven million passengers annually.

Designed by Aeroport de Paris Inc., the terminal will increase Clark airport’s passenger terminal floor area by some 50,000 square meters.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is likely to seek from the Commission on Elections an exemption from the election ban on government project construction, to pave the way for the completion of the first phase of the project by 2017.

Bidding will be done as soon as the terms of reference are done, and the groundbreaking is expected in June next year.

A consultant will be hired for the construction.

“It can be done by DOTC, but if the agency is too saddled with other concerns, the bidding can be handled by the CIAC,” Tanjuatco said.

Another alternative would be to create a special bids and awards committee comprised of representatives from the DOTC and CIAC.

The project’s second phase will increase Clark airport’s passenger capacity to 16 million annually by 2022.