Clark airport terminal completion ensured

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – The P15-billion passenger terminal project at the Clark International Airport here will be completed in 2022 as scheduled, regardless of who wins in next year’s presidential race.

This was the assurance of Pampanga Rep. Joseller Guiao, who said that only a single National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board approval is needed for the whole project.

“The government has to fund the project until it is completed. It’s important for us, people in Central and Northern Luzon, to monitor the project,” he said, adding the new terminal would complement the rail system jointly funded by the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Bases Conversion Development Authority.

The NEDA board, headed by President Aquino, approved last Friday the P15-billion project that would increase the Clark International Airport’s capacity from four million annually to 16 million by 2022.

The approval also paved the way for the release of an initial P1.2 billion budget for the project’s phase I, set to be finished beyond the Aquino administration in 2017.

Guiao said the rest of the P15-billion budget would be included in the national budgets for the following years, until the entire terminal is completed in 2022.

Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) president and chief executive officer Emigdio Tanjuatco said the new terminal would add some 50,000 square meters to the floor area of the airport’s terminal.