Clark Freeport, Pampanga— The Clark International Airport Corp. has ordered informal settlers to immediately vacate 12 hectares of land they are currently occupying without legal basis, as it stalls the ongoing construction of the P12-billion new passenger terminal inside the aviation complex here.
The order was issued by the Committee on Informal Settlers created by the CIAC to clear the 700-hectare aviation complex of illegal settlers occupying the area since 2009.
The CIS served the notice of eviction to the head of 20 families occupying the 12 hectares and asked to them leave and relocate elsewhere immediately.
The clearing operation, which started Oct. 24, has the CIAC seeking the assistance of its sister government firm, the Clark Development Corp., to augment its security force in the area and prevent any untoward incident that would be triggered by the clearing operation.
Apart from the CIS exercising exercise maximum tolerance, CIAC is also seeking the help of the Mabalacat City government to solve the nine-year-old illegal settlers’ problem.
“After exhausting all the legal remedies, including a series dialogues and notices hoping to reach an amicable settlement to no avail, we are constrained to perform this eviction action,” the agency said.
Oji Sanchez of CIAC Corporate Communications Office said the informal settlers started occupying the portion of the aviation complex in 2009 and planted vegetables and fruit-bearing trees, raised livestock, and built shanties.
“They are even profiting from the crops and livestock using government-owned land which they have no legal claims to,” Sanchez said.
An access road network for the new Clark passengers’ terminal will be constructed by the main contractor GMR-Megawide on the settlers’ land and is expected to be completed by 2022.
This is one of the several major infrastructure projects taken by the government to transform the Central Luzon region as the next growth area of the country.
The terminal is now 20 percent finished as Megawide has shifted its ground development to superstructures and building construction.
“CIAC management stressed that the land is part of the aviation complex and not an agriculture land, therefore is unfit for planting, specially by informal settlers,” Sanchez said.
In 2009, informal settlers occupied another area called IE-5 where the Clark Global City now stands. CIAC settled by paying for their produce based on the assessment made by the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department Environment and Natural Resources.
