PH Govt, CIAC to set up ‘National Food Terminal’ | Business and Politics
Clark International Airport Corp. President and CEO Arrey Perez says that CIAC is working with the national government to set up a National Food Terminal in Clark. The PPP project aims to provide warehousing and cold chain processing for all produce in the country. He says this is part of the Marcos’ administration’s goal in food security.
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Clark International Airport Corp. President and CEO Arrey Perez says that CIAC is working with the national government to set up a National Food Terminal in Clark. The PPP project aims to provide warehousing and cold chain processing for all produce in the country. He says this is part of the Marcos’ administration’s goal in food security.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Let's now go to the projects you have mentioned because there are seven important ones that you reported to the board the last time we met.
00:09 Maybe it should come from you what those are.
00:12 What I remember, what stood out to me was that road that went directly from the highway to the airport.
00:20 Maybe you can start there. Why is that important? What's the significance of that?
00:25 I'll couch this in a manner where it's going to be easier to understand.
00:33 Sure.
00:34 There are seven flagship projects and those seven projects are divided into two.
00:40 There are PPP projects. We have three PPP projects.
00:45 There are four infrastructure projects which can be funded solely by SEAC and the national government.
00:52 I'll first deal with the PPP projects. There are three.
00:56 The first one is the National Food Terminal Project.
00:59 We all know that the top priority of the president is food sustainability and security.
01:07 That National Food Terminal Project is envisioned to become a warehousing, a processing of fresh food commodities that are available in Central Luzon and northern parts of the Philippines.
01:25 What we see there is a farmer's market where we can aggregate all the harvests.
01:34 Something similar perhaps to FDI before?
01:37 Yes, very similar. FDI has already been converted to land development.
01:45 Even if they have a remaining portion of that land that they used to own, they cannot expand or convert anymore.
01:53 It's not even the highest and best use.
01:56 It's very perfect that we don't have that anymore.
02:00 We don't have one.
02:01 There are many different food aggregation facilities that the Department of Agriculture is setting up elsewhere in the Philippines.
02:14 But we don't have that central aggregation of all this produce.
02:19 The intention for us is to help these farmers, these livestock growers, to make themselves more competitive.
02:32 That's the real intent.
02:34 Among others, it's also about lessening food spoilage.
02:43 The intention of that food terminal is to have warehousing, better warehousing, and cold chain processing for wet or easily perishable products.
02:57 Another thing that's very important for us is for us to compete.
03:03 Not just in our different cities in the Philippines, but in Southeast Asia at least, is to have that packaging services.
03:14 Packaging services where we could somehow increase the value of our commodities.
03:20 It's not just simply about – I'm just trying to make it easy to understand.
03:25 Sure, sure.
03:26 Packaging services means that there's higher quality, higher quality cleanliness of the commodities that we have.
03:38 That food terminal is somehow a showcase of how it should be done.
03:44 Our farmers, our livestock growers deserve support from the government.
03:51 It's not an answer to the problems of agriculture or aquaculture in the Philippines.
03:57 It's just part of the value chain.
04:00 Which is the promise of President Marcos, really to look at the entire value chain of agriculture, right?
04:07 Yeah. Clark is in the perfect site to have this food terminal.
04:12 You have an airport, which could be your avenue to ship goods because we're islands.
04:20 You can ship it to Visayas, you can ship it to Mindanao, or vice versa.
04:24 Also, if we eventually acquire the skills to have these commodities immediately packed fresh and can be shipped to –
04:33 And maybe processed also.
04:34 Processed, then we can have more exports rather than importing commodities.
04:39 When we met months ago, that was an interesting point that you're making.
04:43 The passenger targets for the airports are there, but there's an untapped opportunity, which was cargo.
04:52 Could you – and this is, I suppose, playing into that plan of yours to also take advantage of that opportunity.
05:01 But for those who understand the economics of airlines, right?
05:05 Yeah.
05:06 Why is cargo important there?
05:08 A plane's biology is that the top is for passengers.
05:14 Right. There's a belly there that's empty.
05:16 Yeah, because the belly is for the cargo, not just for our luggages.
05:19 Yeah.
05:20 But also a big part of that –
05:22 So if you don't fill that, you don't make money.
05:24 You don't make money.
05:25 Yeah.
05:26 So unfortunately, we're just tapping on the top of the plane.
05:30 Right, right.
05:31 We don't have enough goods for the airlines to carry.
05:34 Right.
05:35 So if you look at Metro Manila or in IA, I would say that the airlines are happy because they're not just ferrying people, but also goods.
05:46 Cargo.
05:47 Cargo.
05:48 Right.
05:49 So that's our deal.
05:51 That's what we want to serve, help these airlines to be more competitive.
05:57 And so this food terminal also plays into that, as you said.
06:01 Yes.
06:02 Right?
06:03 So that's our first project.
06:05 Right.
06:06 I've got six more projects to explain.
06:08 Okay.
06:09 We only have an hour, but go ahead.
06:10 So the second is the entertainment and events hub.
06:14 Okay.
06:16 What we're trying to do is to make Clark as a destination.
06:20 Okay.
06:21 It's not just because we have a very nice airport.
06:24 Sure.
06:25 An airport that was awarded recently as one of the most beautiful in the world.
06:27 A very beautiful airport, yeah.
06:29 It was awarded by Pre-Versailles.
06:31 Now, we also want it to become one of the best in the world.
06:35 And if we can attract, we can have attractions and destinations.
06:41 Within Clark.
06:42 Within Clark.
06:43 Yeah.
06:44 And we have, like I said earlier, like I explained, we've got so much real estate.
06:47 Sure.
06:48 And in front of the new terminal building, we've got a rail station that is being built
06:53 by the Department of Transportation from Manila.
06:56 Right.
06:57 And that is being built, and hopefully it gets finished by 2026 or 2027.
07:05 The intention is for that to become a multi-modal hub.
07:09 And we also have plans to put up in the entertainment and events hub an international convention center.
07:17 I see.
07:19 An airport mall.
07:21 Just like Changi, huh?
07:23 Just like Changi.
07:24 Yeah.
07:25 And an indoor sports arena.
07:28 Interesting.
07:29 Yeah.
07:30 Which is one of your major projects before.
07:33 So, okay, the food terminal, entertainment, what else is in the pipeline?
07:40 The entertainment and events hub becomes a destination for everyone, for Clark.
07:47 Okay.
07:48 So that we can have more people going there.
07:50 Right.
07:51 The third one is the urban renewal and heritage preservation program.
07:56 That's an important one, yeah.
07:58 So what we want to do is to showcase ourselves not just in a commercially viable place, but also a sustainable and livable place.
08:07 Okay.
08:08 We're going to have parks and open spaces.
08:12 We're going to develop a river park.
08:15 That river park is also going to be a venue for rainwater harvesting.
08:25 Yeah.
08:26 So it's good that you don't want to overdevelop and commit the same mistakes in Metro Manila, right?
08:31 You don't have any breeding spaces, green areas.
08:35 You want to leave that for the environment and for the public, right?
08:39 Yeah, that's correct.
08:40 That's correct.
08:41 That's very, very correct.
08:42 We're going to develop and protect the parks and open spaces because we don't want them to be with buildings and structures eventually.
08:52 Right, right.
08:53 So we've got plans for them and going to implement them right away.
08:56 Okay.
08:57 And-
08:58 What are the others?
08:59 What are the other projects?
09:00 It's about- Clark has rich heritage because that is a former airbase.
09:09 Very historic, yeah.
09:11 Very historic.
09:12 The Americans built that in 1903.
09:16 So the anniversary of- It's already the 120th anniversary of Clark.
09:23 The founding of Clark.
09:24 The founding of Clark.
09:25 Wow.
09:26 So it's rich in history.
09:28 Yeah.
09:29 It's rich in culture.
09:31 So we want to preserve those.
09:33 There are still many buildings out there and areas where we could show to the world and even the younger generations to remember what happened in the past so that it becomes a driver for us.
09:45 Yeah.
09:46 To inspire young people about the heroics of the people that put up their lives, sacrificed their lives for our freedom.
09:58 Sure.
09:59 So let's not forget that.
10:01 So that's the three PPP projects.
10:06 Okay.
10:07 There's water innovation.
10:08 There's a national food terminal project for food sustainability and security.
10:13 The entertainment and events hub for creating destinations.
10:18 And there are four infrastructure projects.
10:21 The first one is the direct link.
10:23 The road, yeah.
10:24 Yeah.
10:25 Our problem going to the airport is that it's kind of hard to get inside the airport.
10:32 Yeah.
10:33 You don't have a direct exit or entrance to Essitex or T-Plex, right?
10:37 Yeah.
10:38 So what we're envisioning is to immediately build a direct connection from LX, Essitex to the airport.
10:46 The shortest route.
10:47 Fantastic.
10:48 And so that people, you know, every day get confused.
10:53 There are about hundreds of people get confused going to the airport.
10:58 For those who are not familiar, you either enter through South Clark or North, but you have to navigate the Clark development, right?
11:12 Before you get to the airport.
11:13 What you're suggesting is a direct link, right?
11:17 Yeah.
11:18 You know, the agony of going to the airport if you take Clark South, where you would see the medical city, the Clark Medical City.
11:28 It takes you about 15 kilometers to get to the airport.
11:32 If you take Clark North, it's like another seven kilometers to get to the airport.
11:37 But from LX, Essitex, you could see the airport right away.
11:42 It's a huge, beautiful terminal building.
11:45 Yeah.
11:46 But you don't get to the airport right away.
11:49 It gets confusing.
11:51 Yeah.
11:52 So we have to build that direct access link.
11:53 Is that going to be a project of SEAC itself or does another government agency have to take care of that?
12:01 Or like DPWH?
12:03 I don't know, but who's responsible for that?
12:06 Well, we're leading it.
12:08 It's part of our vision.
12:09 We're going to drive the construction of that access link.
12:12 But if it takes the DPWH to build that connection, we're going to be happy with that.
12:20 We'll need the support of the BCDA, the Clark Development Corporation, the DPWH, and the Department of Transportation
12:28 because that link traverses along the alignments of the railway that goes to the Clark Airport from Manila.
12:40 So we'll all need their support.
12:42 But we will drive this.
12:44 So whoever gets this direct access link done, we're happy to work with them.
12:49 Is there a timetable in your mind when you want to have this done?
12:54 Well, it takes about six months to design a new – at least six months to design that link, that new highway or road.
13:07 Are there any issues like rights of way or something like that?
13:10 Yeah, that's a good thing about it is there's no issues.
13:13 There are no issues of right of way.
13:15 So hopefully we can have that before the term of President Marcos ends.
13:20 Yes, I guess by my calculations, by my estimates, by 2026 it's already there.
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