CDC chief goes on leave, denies corruption charges

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Noel Manankil, president and chief executive officer of the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC), went on leave yesterday amid allegations of corruption.

Manankil denied allegations that he has been demanding P2 million each from locators in the Freeport zone.

“In the meantime, I am voluntarily taking a leave of absence effective today to allow the investigations to proceed unimpeded,” Manankil said.

“I would like to categorically and very strongly deny any involvement in the alleged anomaly of demanding bribes from Clark locators. I have served in low key positions at the CDC for 21 years, the latest as vice president for administration and finance,” he said.

Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA) came to the defense of Manankil, saying no one among them has reported allegations of corruption against the CDC head.

CILA president Joselito Go said the allegations against Manankil were “black propaganda.”

Colleagues of Manankil in the CDC said the allegations were “quite incredible.”

The allegations against Manankil prompted President Duterte to ask Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to look for a replacement. Duterte reportedly wanted Manankil fired on the spot.

Tugade was the former CDC president who had backed the appointment of Manankil as his replacement.

“Because I am aware of and I adhere to the position of the President against corruption – even just hints of it – I fully submit myself to an impartial investigation on the allegations,” Manankil said.

“I leave my fate to God, ever confident that truth and justice will prevail,” he added.

Manankil said that as of late Wednesday, he was not aware of any report linking him to any anomaly. 

CIA terminal 2

Meanwhile, the board of directors of the Clark International Airport Corp. is set to approve before yearend a “detailed engineering design” (DED) of the Clark International Airport (CIA) ’s terminal 2 in Angeles, Pampanga.

Alexander Cauguiran, Clark airport president and chief executive officer, said the airport’s plan for terminal 2 was finished and the DED will be completed within three to five months.

“By the end of this year, the board will approve the schedule of procurement of the DED for the horizontal project. We already have a company to do it within 3-5 months. So after the DED was finished, we will now go into the bidding of the actual project which will be completed by the first quarter of 2022,” Cauguiran said.

Cauguiran said the CIA’s terminal 2 would have a capacity of eight million passengers a year while the existing terminal 1 has a capacity of 4.5 million passengers.

Citing research, Cauguiran said around 39.6 million passengers, both domestic and international, used the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last year, and out of that total, at least 8-10 million came from northern and central Luzon.

“CIA will be a big factor to decongest passengers at NAIA and the traffic in Metro Manila. If you’re from northern Luzon and you want to go to Cebu, Davao, Palawan or Boracay, you can now use Clark to avoid the long trip and heavy traffic. We have daily flights for these areas and various domestic destinations. Or if you go to the Middle East and Asian countries, we have various international flights,” Cauguiran said. – With Jun Elias