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Broadcaster denies hand in airport summit

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Pampanga-based broadcaster and Pampanga Press Club (PPC) president Fernando Pangan denied Monday any involvement in an “airport development summit.”

The said summit is slated Aug. 6 at Clark Freeport where a Malaysian consortium is supposed to present its project proposal for the construction of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) Terminal 2 project.

Pangan made the statement after Sun.Star Pampanga columnist Ram Mercado published an opinion article on the paper’s August 2 issue, alleging that he [Pangan] and the PPC endorsed the investor’s presentation-manifestation for Friday’s summit.

Pangan claimed he did not have any conversation with Mercado, especially about the said summit.

The Malaysian consortium has offered to undertake the design, financing, and construction of the DMIA Terminal 2 project, which has been pending for some time now.

Pangan said that he never made an endorsement for any firm with regards to the Terminal 2 project whether on his personal capacity or authority as PPC president.

“We at the PPC neither issued any official statement about the DMIA Terminal 2 project nor endorsed any firm vying for the project,” Pangan said.

Pangan said it is not the media’s job to endorse any company for the Terminal 2 project but to report to the people of the province and the region the goings-on about the airport.

Mercado, Pangan said, may have been fed with wrong information and was misled into thinking that the PPC is supporting the Malaysian consortium’s proposal for the Terminal 2.

But in a phone interview with Mercado, he told Sun.Star Pampanga that Pangan may have misread and misunderstood the statements in his column.

“I think I was misunderstood. I never said he and the PPC were behind the summit nor were they supporting the Malaysian group. It was in fact my high regard and respect for him that I cited his statements,” Mercado said, recalling an instance when Pangan had lunch with the representatives of the Malaysian firm last week.

In his column, Mercado said he stated that Pangan and the Pampanga media group were “coordinating” the affair and not “supporting” the firm. (Rey G. Navales/with reports from Jovi T. De Leon)

Published in the Sun.Star Pampanga newspaper on August 3, 2010.

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