Clark ain't it

CLARK INTERNATIONAL Airport. The name made its debut in Executive Order No. 192 issued by President Fidel Ramos on July 27, 1994 creating the Clark International Airport Corp.

In 2001, during the incumbency of Dr. Emmanuel Y. Angeles, the Clark Development Corp. Board passed Resolution No. 07-08 stating thus:
“RESOLVED THAT, Management’s recommendation to rename Clark International Airport to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in honor of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, be APPROVED, as it is hereby APPROVED, subject to required legislation.”
However, Angeles’ board and all succeeding boards through his successors at the CDC – Tony Ng, Levy Laus, and Benny Ricafort – all failed to effect the required legislation for the DMIA.

But the airport carried the name DMIA just the same.

On October 14, 2011, the CIAC Board approved Resolution No. SM-10-05, Series of 2011 that:
“RESOLVED THAT, the restoration of the name ‘Clark International Airport (CIA)’ to refer to the Clark Aviation Complex within the Clark Freeport Zone to enhance its international acceptance and to preserve its historical significance, be APPROVED, as it is hereby APPROVED. 
“RESOLVED FURTHER THAT, Terminal 1 will be named as DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL TERMINAL (DMT) in recognition of the legacy of former President Diosdado P. Macapagal as the first Kapampangan to become the (sic) President of the Republic of the Philippines.”
Rationalized CIAC President-CEO Victor Jose Luciano then: “We will project Clark as Clark, including its history.”

Yeah, whatever he meant, given that Clark – previously known as Fort Stotsenberg – was named after Major Harold Clark of the US Army Signal Corps who died in a seaplane crash in Panama Canal in 1919. Come to think of it now: Naming Clark after the aviation pioneer showed some American prescience of what the future holds for the place.   

“We made a survey among pilots and other players in the aviation industry. The Clark International Airport or Diosdado Macapagal International Airport went by three letters and these are CRK,” Luciano said then, referring to the code of the International Air Transport Association for Clark.

The inspired and spirited defense for the DMIA by the eloquent Alexander Cauguiran, once CIAC EVP, failed to turn the tide against the CIA.

So it was – still is – CIA. Until Pampanga 1^st District Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao raised the yellow banner and cried Cory Aquino International Airport for Clark.

Identity crisis

Now, what can we make out of this name game?  

Still in search of a permanent name after some twenty years, the airport in Clark already makes a pathological case of identity crisis.

The psychologist who coined IC – in humans, Erik Erikson called that stage of psychosocial development where IC may breed as “Identity Cohesion versus Role Confusion.”

A condition verily as endemic in the corporate body of the airport in Clark.

So, what really is the role of the Clark airport in the life of the nation?

Pawned to the Almighty Dollar in its American past, the Clark airport served as forward base to imperialist designs, to American hegemony – to quote the militant activists of the period. A role it served to the fullest in the Vietnam War.

Another role designed for Clark to suit the American purpose was being an alternative landing site for the space shuttle program, the very reason for the construction of its second runway.

With the Americans gone and after the ashes of Mount Pinatubo were cleared, Clark assumed the role of “economic engine” for the development of the devastated areas in Central Luzon and catalyst for that of Northern Luzon.   

As stated above, in 1994, President Ramos defined Clark in his Executive Order 174 as “future site of a Philippine premier international airport.”

Twenty years hence, that future has never come any nearer.

At times Clark serves as alternative airport whenever the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is buffeted by strong winds and heavy rains or when its instrument panels, radar or landing lights get to their regular dysfunctional modes.

Also as the go-to airport for Taiwan and Hong Kong aircraft when those cities are lashed by super storms.

The coming of the low-cost carriers – AirAsia Phil. and Zest Air, merged and now gone; Tiger and Cebu Pacific, now joined and still around – assumed another role for Clark – that of being an LCC hub. Notwithstanding the early basing of legacy carrier Aseana, and the subsequent coming of Emirates and Qatar. Indeed, premium in the agenda of the CIAC is the completion of the low-cost terminal.    

With constricted traffic – both air and ground – at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Clark airport primed itself anew as premier international gateway for the country.

But the Metro Manila-nesting imperial dragons would have none of that, preferring to pop up one proposed site – Bulacan for Ramon Ang, after another – reclaim land around Sangley Point announced by Cavite’s Abaya brothers of DOTC’s Joseph Emilio land Philippine Reclamation Authority’s Peter Anthony, as replacement for NAIA.

A consuelo de bobo role for Clark is to serve as “twin” to NAIA. Naturally the lesser of the twins left with the latak or leftover, with firstborn Manila by right getting the premium flights for the choicest destinations.

No matter though, NAIA-Clark twinning has become the buzzword for Pampanga’s business elite and political leaders. To their learned judgment, the best possible scenario to push for the Clark airport.

Even but a cursory consideration will find this as the tipping point of Congressman  Guiao’s proposal of a Cory Aquino International Airport for Clark.

With the Manila airport named after his martyred father and the Clark airport for his sainted mother, what stronger impetus can move the son, BS Aquino III, to engage himself in their twinned development.

Cry bootlicker, as the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement did.

Still, Guiao can find ready justification for his act in the exigency, if not the expediency, of the moment. Thoroughly Machiavellian, though it may be. 

An unsettling thought from the inspired genius of Dik Pascual, Philippine Star columnist and supremo of Capampangan in Media Inc., to cap this piece: No twinning of Ninoy in Manila and Cory in Clark but conjugating…er, coupling. And with their son BS presiding, it’s political dynasty taken to the air there.

Whoa!