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BCDA orders Clark Airport to halt Alphaland flights to Balesin

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THE Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is investigating reports that Alphaland Aviation continued to fly passengers coming from the locked-down areas of the National Capital Region and four provinces (NCR-plus) to Balesin Island Club in Quezon.

In a Viber message to the BusinessMirror, BCDA chief executive officer Vivencio “Vince” Dizon said, “We’re looking into it and I’ve already asked Clark Airport to desist allowing the flights.”

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) earlier advised Alphaland Aviation, a unit of Alphaland Corp., which also owns the exclusive resort, not to fly passengers   from the NCR-plus areas – Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite — due to the government-imposed lockdown.

In a letter sent on March 23, 2021 to Alphaland Aviation chairman and president Michael Angelo Patrick M. Asperin, CAB Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said, “In view of the effectivity of lATF Resolution No. 104, we have no recourse but to advise Balesin Island Club through Alphaland Aviation to make the appropriate adjustments in its charter operations and to desist from undertaking any program that would ultimately have the effect of causing the exit of passengers not falling under the above exceptions, from the NCR+ area until the GCQ (general community quarantine) is lifted or modified to allow such exit.”

Arcilla added, “It is our view that medical reason as an exception, is in the context of real immediate medical need for medical attention requiring the travel, rather than for essentially leisure purposes.”

Despite CAB’s letter to Alphaland Aviation, BusinessMirror sources said passengers from Metro Manila were still being flown from the company’s private hangar in Clark, Pampanga to Balesin. A few guests had even posted about their trip on their social media accounts.

In response, Alphaland Corp. president Dennis O. Valdes said, “We do not fly without Caap (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) approval.” The Caap implements policies to promote the safety of air commerce, but the CAB overseas the air transport sector, along with regulating flight schedules. 

 Meanwhile, NCR-plus is now under enhanced community quarantine April 4, 2021, as per the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Essential travel only

Arcilla, in his letter to Alphaland Aviation, said, “We are aware that Balesin Island Club is a premier resort destination where members and other guests can expect nothing less than the best in beach and other leisure amenities, far away from the din of the metropolis, and we expect that the island club’s facilities have had more than the usual bookings, especially for the coming Holy Week, in light of a recent and general loosening of mobility restrictions prior to the issuance and approval of lATF Resolution 104.”

But, he reminded Asperin, the only passengers allowed to travel in and out of NCR-plus areas are: essential workers, health and emergency frontline personnel, government officials and government frontline personnel, duly authorized humanitarian assistance actors, persons traveling for medical or humanitarian reasons, persons going to the airport for travel abroad, anyone crossing zones for work or business or going back home, and returning overseas Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers.

In a letter to club members, business mogul Roberto V. Ongpin, who owns Balesin, had earlier offered an “Anti-Covid Immunity Treatment Program,” as a way for its members and guests from the NCR-plus areas — locked down under the earlier GCQ rules — to continue with their Holy Week vacation. This prompted an investigation by the Department of Tourism, which emphasized that exemptions were only for medical emergencies. (See, DOT to probe exclusive Balesin resort for ‘treatment’ plan during NCR-plus lockdown,”in the BusinessMirror, March 23, 2021.) 

Read full article on BusinessMirror

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