Plan to drop Macapagal name from Clark airport bared

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga ,Philippines  – Plans are underway to rename the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) as Clark International Airport (CIA) “for practical purposes.”

Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) vice president for operations Reynaldo Catacutan confirmed this move in a telephone interview yesterday, but said that the proposal has yet to be tackled by the CIAC board on Nov. 18.

Catacutan refused to elaborate, admitting that the issue could be “politically sensitive.” President Aquino has yet to be informed about the proposal, he added.

 But a source who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to talk about the issue, said the move has “nothing to do with politics,” despite a string of criminal and other cases being raised against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, after whom the Clark airport was named in 2003.

“The name of Diosdado Macapagal, who remains to be revered by his fellow Kapampangans, will still be retained under the proposal for the existing airport terminal to be named after him. Thus, the existing terminal would be called Diosdado Macapagal Terminal 1, while the entire aviation complex which covers 2,500 hectares would be named Clark International Airport,” the source said.

 The source recalled that after the Americans abandoned the former US Air Force base and the area was declared a freeport, a proposal to rename it was defeated by those who insisted that the name Clark is already known and should be used to attract foreign investors.

“This is the same reason for the proposal to name the airport here as Clark. This is apart from the fact that most foreigners rather find the name of the former Kapampangan president hard to remember and pronounce,” the source said.

The former US military base was named after Maj. Harold Clark of the US Army Signal Corps, who died in a seaplane crash in the Panama Canal on May 2, 1919.