Bulacan airport to leapfrog PH’s competitiveness: Gordon

Gordon made the statement in his Wednesday’s co-sponsorship speech for Senate Bill No. 1823 under Committee Report No. 128, which proposes to grant Miguel Aerocity Inc. a franchise to construct, develop, establish, operate and maintain a domestic and international airport in Bulakan, Bulacan and to construct, develop, establish, operate and maintain an adjacent airport city  (File Photo: Dick Gordon/Facebook)

MANILA – With the end of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic expected to further stimulate the mad rush to grab investments going out of China, Senator Richard J. Gordon stressed the need to expedite the international airport proposed to be built in Bulacan to make the country more attractive to investors.

Gordon made the statement in his Wednesday’s co-sponsorship speech for Senate Bill No. 1823 under Committee Report No. 128, which proposes to grant Miguel Aerocity Inc. a franchise to construct, develop, establish, operate and maintain a domestic and international airport in Bulakan, Bulacan and to construct, develop, establish, operate and maintain an adjacent airport city

“I strongly support this new airport that is solely going to be built by San Miguel Corporation without any money being put in by the government. This idea is something that has to be undertaken real, real fast because after Covid there would be a mad rush for investments and we have to make our country look very, very good,” Gordon said.

He said the proposed construction of an international airport in Central Luzon is really “a game-changer”

“We can now make a tremendous leap-frog into the world of competitiveness,” he added.

Gordon said with China dislodged as the manufacturing hub with giant firms like LG, Panasonic, and Samsung, among others going to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, the prospect of a very major international airport, with all the other airports and seaports, would certainly make the Philippines attractive to the people who are now changing the paradigm.

“With the promise of this major airport, it is going to be a big selling point. Apart from the strategic location of our country vis-à-vis Asia, away from the mainland like England is to Europe, away from the battles and wars going in the mainland, I think this would be very, very good for our country. If we get that airport here, I’m sure not only FedEx will come here but all the airplanes. When this airport opens, it will attract other industries,” he said.

Gordon also expressed confidence that the resulting multiplier effect of the proposed Bulacan International Airport, together with the Regional Infrastructure and Investment Coordinating Hub of Central Luzon, a bill that he authored, would not only decongest Metro Manila and disperse industries, but it would also boost the economy in Central Luzon all the way to Northern Luzon and Southern Luzon.

“It would also serve as a model for the other regions in the country,” he said.

He said all the great countries in the world are really putting up a lot of airports because aviation has really grown by leaps and bounds.

“Airpots attract a lot of industries. They will be attracting a lot of cargo operations, warehousing, certainly there would be a lot of businesses like restaurants, duty-free shops. If we subdivide the vast, idle land in the region into possible industrial or investment parks, the new airport and the three other existing airports in Subic, Clark and Manila, together with the seaports and the network of highways and the proposed railways, would facilitate the movement of raw materials, goods, trade and people. It would be a very good come-on for investors,” he added. (PR)