These are what Sangley airport works will dislocate

Evicting Sangley naval base in Cavite for a commercial airport will dislocate military facilities, operations and personnel. Planners of a Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) had omitted that.

In presenting the SPIA Project to President Duterte in February, no mention was made of what will be removed. Those include Philippine Navy (PN) assets:

• 207 office buildings, shipyards, piers, wharfs, airstrips, hangars, depots, communication towers, training sites, hospitals, weather station, filling stations, sports centers, gyms, canteens and barracks;

• 10,000 sailors and civilian personnel; and

• 738 in-base family dwellings, three schools of 2,300 children, parks, playgrounds, chapels and community halls.

Ignored was that Sangley base is strategic for defense of Manila Bay and the seat of government. It is the main base of the Philippine Fleet and support services. It stations specialized naval warfare units and sea and coastal combat forces. It hosts the PN’s largest in-base housing, not counting barangays outside the base. Welfare of personnel and their families is foremost for morale and performance.

“Where will the Navy move all those?” admirals worry. They were never consulted on the SPIA Project, a PN study states.

A glossy picture was given the President about SPIA. The transport department and Cavite provincial capitol claimed it would have 135 million passengers a year and four runways. The P550-billion cost would be borrowed from China.

With COVID-19 dampening world and domestic travel, trade and tourism, all those figures are now void. The global pandemic is forecast to last at least four years.

Even without a health crisis, the figures appear to over-promise. The SPIA will share the same airspace with Manila International Airport, the country’s main gateway only five kilometers away. They would compete for the same passengers and cargo.

Cavite officials are lobbying for closure and conversion of MIA into a theme park, the PN study notes. That cannot happen soon. The transport department has just approved MIA’s expansion to take in tens of millions more passengers.

The department also green-lighted in 2019 the construction of a six-runway international airport in Bulacan, also by the bay just north of Manila. Plus, terminal expansions and runway extensions in Clark International Airport, Pampanga, farther northeast. Just reopened is Subic International Airport, Zambales, in the northwest.

As an international hub south of Manila, to serve Southern Tagalog region as well, Sangley is not an ideal site. It is at the far edge of Cavite away from neighboring Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces. Critics point up the narrow roads to Sangley. For that reason, a plan for an international airport there was scuttled ten years ago. That earlier proposal did not intend to displace Sangley naval base.

The SPIA plan was shown to Duterte on Feb. 15, 2020. Occasion was the transfer of small private airplane hangars from Manila airport to the 77-hectare Sangley airbase. The site is beside PN’s 66-hectare base. The Air Force gave way in exchange for replication of its Sangley facilities in Laguindingan Airport, between Cagayan de Oro and Iligan Cities, Northern Mindanao.

Only a day before, on Feb. 14, Cavite officials contracted a China state firm for SPIA’s Phase-1. China Communications Construction Company is to get P208.5 billion to build only one runway, refurbish an old terminal and pave a 4.6-kilometer connector road from Manila-Cavite Expressway.

CCCC leads the non-stop fortification of seven Philippine reefs grabbed by China. Accusing CCCC of enabling Beijing to militarize the South China Sea, Washington the other week banned it and 24 subsidiaries from doing business with Americans. The World Bank earlier blacklisted the CCCC Group from road and bridge works in the Philippines for fraudulence and shoddiness.

Target completion of SPIA’s Phase-1 is two years. There are yet no relocations for PN facilities and personnel. Ternate and Naic towns, 44 and 31 kilometers away, have only been suggested by Cavite officials, PN says.

“Where will the money for relocation come from?” Rep. Jericho Nograles remarked Saturday in my Sapol radio show. “By law and precedents, it should be from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.”

But PN chief Vice Admiral Giovanni Bacordo has received no word. The Armed Forces and Dept. of National Defense support the PN’s stand to stay in Sangley. Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana authorized the PN last March to coordinate with the Cavite provincial capitol about coexistence. Only then did the SPIA proponents begin to listen to PN concerns. There has been only one online conversation.

“For national security, the Navy is one of the most important assets we must support, considering the escalating tensions in the South China Sea,” Nograles said. Chinese gunboats are trespassing Philippine waters.

“Our Armed Forces recently formed a new combat regiment to man our missile defense system against threats,” Nograles added. “We cannot neglect the minimum requirements to defend our sovereignty. We need to balance commercial with security concerns.”

(Read also Gotcha, 4 Sept. 2020, “Removing Sangley Naval Base Will Leave Manila Defenseless”: https://tinyurl.com/yyuehw6c)

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Exposes

Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/Anvil-Exposes or at National Bookstores.

*      *      *

Gotcha archives: https://tinyurl.com/Gotcha-Archives