IMPRESSIVE CLARK AIRPORT. Some members of Pangasinan media, particularly active members of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, had a familiarization tour at the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) on April 21.

This corner eagerly joined the tour. It was both enlightening and educational and a chance to help spread the good news that we, in the North, need not travel to the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (also known as Manila International Airport) in Paranaque and Pasay for our domestic and international flights.

For us in the Ilocandia area, CRK Airport is close to home, right?

We paid a courtesy call on President and CEO Alexander Caugurian who gladly informed us about developments in the airport through an audio- visual presentation.

Caugurian sounded very optimistic about expansion program expected to be completed in the next three years. It targets to double CIAC’s passenger-holding capacity from 4.2 million to 8 million per year.

He said CRK is and will continue to be a world-class terminal.

Cauguiran proudly enumerated the carriers already landing at the Clark airport, among them include Philippine Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Cathay Dragon, Air Asia Philippines, Cebu Pacific Air, Airswift Transportation and Jin Air Company, among some others.

He also presented the long-range plans already in place whose implementation will extend beyond the current administration’s term. Sure, Sir Alex, we will not forget your vision when that finally happens.

Mr. Ritchie Nacpil, airport operations manager, gave us a tour of the CRK Passenger Terminal Building. It was there where we found how strict and orderly the checking procedures for passengers’ baggage are. Walang lusot, pati anting-anting ng isang kasama naming media nabuking.

Then at the Clark 4D Theater/Museum, we viewed how Pampanga had risen from the ashes brought by the widespread destructions of Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Like Dagupan and Baguio City that were devastated by the 1990 strong earthquake, Pampanga also had its second and better life after the destructions that had hit these areas.

Next we had a Motor Tour around the Clark Freeport Zone and the Civil Aviation Complex and also a tour at the Museo Ning Angeles.

We thank Oji Sanchez and his team of the CIAC Corp Communications Office for being a gracious host to us, Pangasinan media.

As communicators, we can now better discuss with our friends, families and to many people the many benefits and the convenience of traveling locally and abroad using the CRK airport. — Eva Visperas

 

MACARTHUR PARK IS MELTING IN THE DARK. True enough, with its many eyesores gone, the Tondaligan Blue Beach is now much cleaner and safer than before. Thanks to Mayor Belen Fernandez for responding to the call to save the beach from many years of complacency and neglect.

But Mayor Belen should not stop there. She should direct the Tondaligan Park management to extend its authority over part of the Dagupan beach behind the MacArthur monument in Bonuan Gueset, that sorely needs refurbishing.

As a sign of respect to the American general who led the allied forces in liberating the Philippines in 1945, that part of the beach where MacArthur and his troops waded ashore to liberate Luzon from the Japanese must be saved and preserved, too.

It will be a big disservice to MacArthur’s significant role in the liberation campaign if the city government continues to neglect the park regularly accessed by picnickers. The MacArthur Park opens only at 6:00 a.m. and closes at 6:00 p.m. daily.

It’s embarrassing to see worn out shoes, slippers, bottles of soft drinks, buttons of dresses, plastic wrappers and all sort of garbage littering in the beach area behind the park..

I regretted having brought my two young granddaughters vacationing from New Zealand to the MacArthur Park one early morning this April thinking they would appreciate the fresh air from the Lingayen Gulf while collecting seashells on the shore.

My younger granddaughter Isabelle, only five, commented while we were walking in the sand that the beach is messy, something she had not seen in their beach in Gulf Harbour, Auckland where she and big sister Sophia regularly stroll and collect cockles Saturday mornings. That was a mouthful.

Meanwhile, in that trip to the beach, we found some fishermen catching bangus fry in the water using a big basin. One fills the basin with seawater and brings this to shore.

With a plastic cup, one scoops the fry and transfers it to a container. Mind you, for that task one earns P2,500 daily, certainly a lot more than what most local business executives earn. (1,000 pieces of fry are sold for P300)

He sells the fry to fishpond owners in Dagupan who still buy these from Ilocos Norte, Sarangani, and Indonesia.

Which reminds me of the sabalo I held during the bangus rodeo of the Dagupan Festival that weighed 8.4 kilos and fetched P7,000.

That sabalo, said Councilor Lino Fernandez, must be about seven years old and does not lay eggs as long as it is in fishpond.

But if you set it free in the sea, she will lay eggs that soon develop into fry. These fry are the ones swept ashore in Bonuan where fishermen make a fortune out of it.  — Leonardo Micua

 

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