Field of dreams

YOU HAVE to give it to Victor Jose “Chichos” Luciano, still – or is steeled more apt? – president-CEO of the Clark International Airport Corp.
Since Day One of his watch, Chichos has remained steadfast, if not obstinate, in his faith in the potential, aye, the destiny of the Clark International Airport to be a truly international airport if not the premier global gateway of the country. A cursory scan of all those pressed releases churned out of the CIAC public affairs office is all it takes to believe in Chichos’ vision for the CIA.
Some vision that, with but a little reading of those same CIAC releases, will prove to be way too long in verbalization but utterly short in materialization.
A case in point is the “terminal fever” that has afflicted CIAC since the mid-point of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. So still remember the Terminal 2 project promised to be finished before GMA stepped down?
In September 2006, GMA presided over the laying of the time capsule for the construction of Terminal 2. It was announced then that the sum of P3 billion, to come from the Manila International Airport Authority, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., and the Bureau of Immigration, among other agencies will be allotted for the project.
That was the first and last time we heard of that.
Then came the $1.2 billion proposal from an ALMAL Investments Co., a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti mega developer M.A. Kharafi Projects, “to cover all civil components of the DMIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3 plus the adjacent 1,500 hectares in the aviation complex strictly following the CIAC original master plan.”
Travels to Kuwait and Egypt by CIAC officials and even GMA herself yielded nothing but loose talks of Rolexes and Patek Philippes finding themselves on non-Arab wrists.
Thereafter followed the CIAC report of a group of major government-linked and private firms in Malaysia called Bristeel Overseas Ventures, Inc. (BOV) offered to infuse at least $150 million in foreign direct investment to immediately undertake the much-needed expansion of the passenger terminal of the Clark International Airport.
And then we came to read that in a regular meeting on May 17, 2010, the CIAC Board “resolved to accept for detailed negotiations” the proposal of the Philco Aero Inc. on the Passenger Terminal 2 Development Project of the DMIA, as it was deemed “superior” to the BOVI proposal.
A year and eight months after, not a single hollow block for the Terminal 2 project is in place at the CIA.
Last week, CIAC was high with terminal fever again.
Chichos announced that “they” are pushing for the construction of a budget terminal that will handle about 10 million passengers a year at the CIA.
According to the press release, “The new facility, amounting to P12 billion, will take three years to complete and make (the CIA) the second largest airport in the country, next to Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.”
“This budget terminal is the kind of terminal that meets the requirements of our airport in Clark. Our terminal right now can only accommodate 2.5 million. So we need a budget terminal to effectively say that DMIA is the next budget airline airport of the country.” So was Chichos quoted directly.
Hyping further: “AirAsia is seen to carry some 800,000 passengers every year and an additional increase of 500,000 each year. AirAsia alone is expecting to have five million passengers out of Clark in the next four years.”
Great, if not unreasonable, expectations from Air Asia there, Mr. Luciano. If we may be so blunt.
Why, Air Asia – its Philippine subsidiary that is -- only last August brought in its brand new plane with the declaration that starting December it would be flying from Clark to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore, plus “maybe” Puerto Princesa and Davao.
It is now January and the only Air Asia-Philippines flights we heard of – again through Chichos – were those to Cagayan de Oro bringing relief goods to the victims of Typhoon Sendong.
Indeed, this same Air Asia Phil. asked a number of local mediamen to block off three days last November for a fam-trip to Kuala Lumpur. If Businessweek’s Peter Alagos had not been so direct as to ask Air Asia Phil. about the trip a day before the scheduled departure, the mediamen would not have known that the trip was cancelled.
As Air Asia Phil. could not be relied upon on a simple cancellation of a scheduled trip, how can it be expected to deliver on such a gargantuan undertaking as bringing in 800,000 passengers to Clark each year?
Still we indulge in Chichos’ wet dream for CIA and hear him on: “The airlines are already here. So the budget terminal is timely.”
Yeah, we are reminded here of the memorable misquote from the Kevin Costner 1989 baseball movie: “If you build it, they will come.” Albeit in reverse.
They are here – the airlines. So we build the terminal. Ah, what dreams – to Chichos – do come.