Airport

For the harried denizens of the metropolis, getting to and from the airport is an exercise in patience and equanimity. The congestion extends from the roads to the terminals. One never knows exactly how much time it will take to get through.

The Duterte administration recently unveiled an impressive infrastructure plan for the country. The infra plan will spearhead the general strategy of faster and broader-based growth, making the country more competitive in a dynamic region of the world.

The infra plan, however, has yet to specify which of several airport proposals will be given preference. Our congested airport will be useless in a few years as passenger load quickly rises. The NAIA surpassed its design capacity many years ago.

Were the Noynoy administration a little less indolent and a little more competent, they should have prioritized building a new airport in 2010. If they did, the situation would not be this bad. But that is water under the bridge. The six years are already lost.

The best that could be done is to hurry up building a new airport complex. The attitude of the present DOTr leadership is to allow all proposals to flourish, as long as government does not have to cover private sector business risks with sovereign guarantees.

On the matter of airports, government will have to be more assertive in ensuring efficient transport networks will link the new air facilities with the population centers. The NAIA is choked with traffic all around. All new airports elsewhere are linked to the cities with efficient mass transport.

Earlier this year, San Miguel Corporation reviewed its standing unsolicited proposal to build a new international gateway in Bulacan. The facility will be linked to the NLEX. A rail link might likewise be provided to enhance access.

A consortium that includes the SM Group and the Solar Group offered last year to reclaim 2,500 hectares from the bay adjacent to Sangley Point in Cavite. According to initial designs, the complex will include an international airport, a seaport and an industrial complex.

These are exciting proposals. The massive reclamation they both require, however, means additional airport capacity will not become available for at least a decade. That is too long, considering the congestion at the NAIA.

The most feasible new international gateway seems to be the Clark facility. Despite the distance, that facility has one clear advantage: two world-class runways already exist.  In fact, that facility is now being used by budget airlines. Motorists do not seem to mind motoring all the way to Clark to take advantage of cheaper fares.

Clark has other advantages. It could be quickly linked by rail to nearby Subic, where a third runway exists. There is ample land to accommodate the businesses an airport will generate.

When the Northrail (mothballed by the Noynoy administration) is finally built, it will link the prospective airport to Manila. That will facilitate movement of both passengers and cargo between the city and the airport.

Beginning with the DOTr, government plans to relocate offices to Clark to decongest the Manila area. A New Clark City has all of 9,450 hectares available for businesses willing to relocate to a rising economic zone.

The Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) recently submitted an unsolicited proposal for a joint venture with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) for the expansion, operations and maintenance of Clark airport.

The MPIC proposal looks into the possibility of incorporating a new express railway service linking Buendia in Makati with the Clark airport. That express rail service will cut travel time between Clark and Makati to under an hour, using an express line with a commercial speed of 107 kilometers per hour.

The express rail service will complement the PNR commuter line now planned to run from Tutuban to Malolos and eventually to Clark. MPIC is bullish about the feasibility of building such a line, considering the estimated air passenger traffic over the next few years and the potentials of the New Clark City.

The MPIC is as big-ticket as any project could be. It is estimated that the entire project will cost about P336.6 billion. In its proposal, the MPIC looks to generating the funds from internal sources and investment banking institutions. It requires no financial contribution from the BCDA and the CIAC.

This is, to be sure, an aggressive proposal. But the entire Duterte infra program is an ambitious one. It expects a costing running up to about P8 trillion between now and 2022.

The infra spending alone will stimulate the economy, enabling the administration to maintain a seven percent average GDP growth rate. The economic activity that the new infra will foster will definitely be far larger. Infra spending has the highest multiplier effects than any form of expenditure. This is the essence of what is now called DuterteNomics.

Our need for a second airport is pretty desperate. The limitation of the NAIA is more than just an inconvenience. It is chokepoint that holds back tourism and dissuades investments.

In 1989, I headed a UP research team that studied possible economic uses for the US bases. We were commissioned by the Philippine Senate to provide inputs for the historic vote on the bases treaty. We drew up a sketch of Clark and Subic as free economic zones that will be magnets for investment into our economy.

If the proposed express rail line is finally built, that will make our fabulous visions for these two zones a reality.