OFWs stranded for lack of flights at Clark

CLARK FREEPORT -- Some 10,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Central Luzon has been stranded for lack of international flights schedules at the Diosdadao Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

Rep. Carmelo Lazatin (First district, Pampanga) said Wednesday that the very limited international flights at Clark are holding thousands of vacationing overseas workers, mostly from the Middle East, from returning to their places of employment due to the acute lack of flight schedules here.

Major stakeholders in Central Luzon earlier prepared a manifesto asking anew President Arroyo to allow unlimited flights at the DMIA.

Lazatin who heads the stakeholders group said he would seek an audience with the President to present the copy of their manifesto.

The authors of their manifesto said thousands of OFWs from Central Luzon have been hamstrung by the severe lack of return flights to their places of work.

They added that thousands of already recruited OFWs have even lost their jobs abroad because of their failure to return to their work places and their failure to arrive at their job sites within the periods stipulated in their contracts.

It is definitely disgraceful that those whom we hail as our present heroes have to periodically go through an ordeal in order to return to where they earn a living after a brief reunion with their families, Lazatin said.

The stakeholders called on their provincemate, President Arroyo, to allow more international flights at the 2,500 hectare Civil Aviation Complex at the Clark Freeport.

Lazatin said we appeal to our President to solve the worsening problems of OFWs in Central Luzon by allowing a liberalized air policy that will create more employment and economic developments not only in Clark and Subic freeports but as well the entire country.

The manifesto requesting for unlimited flights at DMIA were signed by the congressman; Mario Lazatin, director of the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry, J.Del Rosario, president of the Clark Investors and Locators Association, Frankie Villanueva President of Association of Business Chambers in Central Luzon, James Dale, president of the Hotel and Restaurants Association of Pampanga, Freddie So, president of the Angeles City Filipino-Chinese chamber of Commerce Inc., and Mabalacat mayor Marino Morales.

In their manifesto, the group wants the President to schedule air talks so as to attract foreign air carriers to operate in the country thus would benefit the partners in tourism, trade and overseas employment and the acceptance of proposals by other countries for liberal air access including pocket open skies in Clark and Subic to enable a long term growth and development.

The holding of more bilateral and multilateral air talks with other countries is also a critical element in securing more favorable and more relevant Air Service Agreements with out trade and tourism partners for the benefit of all Philippine gateways, the manifesto further said. Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX