Senator Alan Peter Cayetano has proposed dividing the Ninoy Aquino International Airport into two business parks and naming them after former President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and the late senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.
During the budget deliberation of the Senate Committee on Finance, Cayetano said the proposal will be made possible once the construction of airports in Bulacan and Cavite are finished.
“One of the proposals during the Duterte administration is once the Bulacan and Cavite airport becomes complete, NAIA would be split into half for a park,” he said.
The lawmaker said the “central park” will serve as the “lungs of the Philippines”.
“We can sell the other half as a central business district,” he added.
Cayetano then proposed splitting the parks into two and naming them after Marcos and Aquino.
“Actually, I have an amended proposal. Make half of it a park, and divide the other half into two: Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Business Park (and) Ninoy Aquino Business Park, for businessmen to compete rather than boycott,” he said.
“Let’s see where they will go. Competition works. To those debating on the internet whether the airport should be renamed or not, they were both parts of history,” he added.
After making his proposal, Cayetano quipped that he may get criticized for making such a suggestion.
“It would be double bashing later from both sides,” he said.
In July, Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. proposed a bill seeking to rename NAIA to Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport.
The proposed measure received mixed reactions from the public.
The airport, the main gateway of the world to the Philippines, was named after Aquino via Republic Act 6639 in 1987. Aquino, a staunch critic of Marcos, was assassinated on the airport’s tarmac on 21 August 1983.