Monday, June 16, 2008 DOTC: Reopening of old airport a 'hopeless case'
THE City Government of Bacolod and the people behind Retain Bacolod Airport Movement (RBAM) should stop in lobbying for the reopening of the old Bacolod airport in Barangay Singcang.
Senior official of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) in Manila said, "It's impossible to grant the request of Mayor Evelio Leonardia and RBAM to reopen the old airport. It's too risky to reopen the old airport since it's very near to the new one in Silay City."
To have two airports in one province, each airfield must have a distance of at least 20 nautical miles radius from one another as per the ruling of the International Civil Aviation Official (ICAO).
Silay and Bacolod, however, only have a 16-kilometer gap. In every mile, it also must have about 1.4-kilometer distance.
But Leonardia insisted, "Watch out for the next development on our quest to reopen the old airport this week."
The mayor hoped that with Lucio Tan's approval of their request to reopen the old airport, he, along with the RBAM people, could soon get President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's nod.
Tan is the owner of Philippine Airlines (Pal), the one that owns majority of the lot property at the old Bacolod airport.
RBAM, led by Bacolod journalist Primo Esleyer, also wrote Arroyo a letter last month, requesting for the immediate reopening of the old airport.
Esleyer said even the city government is willing to shoulder the operational cost of the old airport.
Estimate showed the city would need at least P50 million a year if it would shoulder the operational cost of the old airport.
The amount does not include the purchase of different air navigational equipment as the old ones were already brought to Kabankalan City, also in preparation for the construction of an airport in barangay Hilamunan soon.
The DOTC official, however, stressed they would not risk allowing two airports in Bacolod and Silay. "This is the reason why we had ordered the relocation of air navigational equipment from Bacolod to Kabankalan City because the request to reopen the old Bacolod airport is now a hopeless case."
He added, "What they can do is simply to answer, answer, answer and answer all the letter-requests of the mayor and even of the RBAM. But to say that there's still hope to reopen the old airport, my God, it's impossible! (Erwin Ambo Delilan)
