Vol. XXI, No. 188-A [ Business World Online ]
Saturday, April 26, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has transformed the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), a state-owned corporation that operates and manages the Clark Civil Aviation Complex, as a subsidiary of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to ensure that the development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) is in line with the authority’s conversion activities.
The directive is embodied in Executive Order (EO) no. 716, signed by the President last April 3.
Mrs. Arroyo earlier ordered government agencies to develop the DMIA in Pampanga into the country’s premier airport, since the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila is already congested.
"There is a need to transform CIAC into a subsidiary of BCDA to ensure that the development of the Clark Aviation Complex-DMIA is aligned to the conversion program of BCDA.
She added that the move will "create synergy" between the two corporations.
The CIAC was a subsidiary of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) by virtue of Executive Order no. 193 issued in 2003. CDC is the implementing arm of the BCDA within the Clark Freeport Zone and Clark Special Economic Zone.
Under the new presidential order, the CIAC will be subject to the policy supervision of the Department of Transportation and Communications. It will have a board of directors that will be composed of not more than nine members. The members will be nominated by the President.
CIAC will only engage in aviation, aviation-related services, and aviation-related logistics activities. All lease and business arrangements pertaining to these will be undertaken solely by the CIAC.
The President also directed BCDA to prepare an implementing plan that will detail the actions it will take to transform the CIAC into its subsidiary.
The DMIA is one of the biggest aviation complexes in Asia with 3.2-kilometer parallel runways that will be extended to four kilometers to accommodate new generation, wide-bodied aircraft.
The Clark-based airport has an instrument landing system, navigational aids, meteorological equipment and complete airfield lighting system.
The Clark-based airport now hosts a number of small international carriers like Tiger Airways, which operates direct flights from the DMIA to a number of Asian cities like Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. — Alexis Douglas B. Romero
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