CLARK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT—Stringent and enhanced safety and security measures are being implemented at this airport in view of last week’s flight diversions from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in Manila.
This was the assurance made by the state-run Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) on Monday.
“Clark airport is able and ready to accommodate at least 30 aircraft should there be flight diversions, especially at the onset of the rainy season, as we have ample facilities and aircraft parking slots, hotel accommodations, transportation services and emergency and technical services,” CIAC OIC Alexander Cauguiran said.
Last week 11 flights were delayed or diverted to this airport after the runway at the Naia was temporarily shut down for several hours to give way to emergency repairs of a large pothole at runway 06-24.
The airport’s engineering and security personnel are directed to work overtime in preparation for the Asean Summit in November since some of its related meetings will be held in Clark, Cauguiran said.
In a related development, security measures are also currently being undertaken to discourage the proliferation of informal settlers who raise farm-produced crops inside this Civil Aviation Complex (CAC).
Cauguiran said the present CIAC board members approved the replacement last November of Cerberus Security, the past management’s security force at the Clark Civil Aviation
Complex, due to “lapses in security”, referring to the unregulated access of unauthorized persons to the CAC area. “Under this administration, we have established tougher security measures to control informal settlers and heighten security efforts,” Cauguiran said.
The informal settlers, most of them farmers, have been occupying the area even before the establishment of the Clark Freeport Zone.
Aside from the ongoing census and other social preparation activities to compensate the settlers, Cauguiran said he has directed the CIAC security to prohibit settlers from bringing in agriculture inputs, such as rice and corn seeds, which lure in birds to prevent any incidence of bird strikes.