From the Sorianos to Cojuangco and now to Ramon Ang. It’s a long business story which begs to be written. Ramon Ang, considered one of the richest men in the country looks simply, dress simply and talk simply. His business credentials truly is impressive. His friendship with the late Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco dramatically changed his life. Ang, the boy from Tondo, unlocked his potentials when Cojuangco accompanied the Marcoses in exile following the latter’s fall from power in 1986. He was requested to take care of the business in the meantime. Ang showed to his friend in exile that he can be trusted. Honesty and simplicity is in his DNA. His decency and with highly developed moral values sustained the operations of San Miguel Corporation. And in no time, SMC became a conglomerate. The late Boss Danding must have been pleasantly surprised by the growth of the company. Now SMC is in different business interests like building expressways and airports, aside from beers.
Presently, aside from the rehabiltation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Ang is halfway already in the construction of the soon will be the biggest airport in the country which is located in Bulacan and that it can compare to the Changi airport of Singapore. How this Bulacan airport will affect the operations of the Gotianun led LIPAD in Clark Freeport is yet to be seen. My personal calculations, the Ang’s Bulacan airport will adversely affect LIPAD in terms of passengers and revenues. Former Clark Development Corporation President Noel Manankil, now the head of LIPAD must be crunching his numbers now.
The newly built terminal of Clark Airport opened for business almost two years ago and is now linked to northern provinces via the newly built road going to the New Clark City in Tarlac. Looking back, after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, the airport was hardly used. The first commercial flight somehow started in October 2003. The United Parcel Service (UPS) made daily run of 11 flights. It was an Aseana Airline which experimented a test flight carrying mostly golfers. Later, regular flights with tourists and investors came. Also Air Asia of Tony Fernandez started its commercial short haul flights. (The airline was purchased by our cabalen from Angeles City, Congressman Michael Romero but later sold all his shares).Then the legacy carriers came. Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific were among the first. Slowly the terminal was upgraded to accommodate more passengers and annual revenues were nearing billions. I remember as a member of the board of directors of Clark International Airport Corporation, we approved getting the services of the corp of engineers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to strengthen the tarmac just to accommodate the cargo planes initially. The rest is history.
Meanwhile, here is a business strategy normally we don’t understand. The government issued a notice of award to San Miguel Holdings Corporation for its proposal to build the new international in Bulacan. Now it is being done. SMC obtained the original proponent status with an offer to build the air gateway in Bulacan, some kilometers away from Clark airport. As the original proponent, initially the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) evaluated the SMC proposal. It was rejected the first time. Maybe there’s a threat that the surrounding areas will be submerged and get flooded during the rainy months. Apparently government agencies were convinced that there was an offered solution, so SMC will proceed. As we often hear and say, the more the merrier. Sangley airport in Cavite reportedly was also given the go signal.But nothing moves there yet. Waiting also to be developed are the airports in Subic in Zambales, San Fernando airport in La Union and the Loakan airport in Baguio City. Let us fly high.