Tuesday, December 18, 2007 DOTC explains airport status By Danilo V. Adorador III
THE Laguindingan Airport project in Misamis Oriental is not an international airport, and wasn't delayed because funds intended for it were haphazardly transferred to Iloilo as widely reported.
Engineer Ryan B. Gico, one of the project's overseers at the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), clarified these oft-repeated errors as he sought to appraise the Misamis Oriental Provincial Board on the airport's latest updates during the regular session Monday.
The Laguindingan Airport Development Project (LADP), Engineer Gico said will only be offering domestic flights, but "of international standards."
It will have features of an international airport, which can be upgraded later for international use.
"What we are constructing now is a domestic airport and not comparable for example, Davao International Airport," Gico told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
Gico also said "politics" was not among the reasons why the airport is delayed.
Cagayan de Oro Vice Mayor Vicente Emano, who was already a Misamis Oriental governor when the project was conceived in the early 90's, had earlier said that "politics" caused the delay in the airport project's implementation.
Emano said funds for the Laguindingan airport construction was transferred to a similar project in Iloilo after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fared poorly in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental in the 2004 elections.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo bagged a wide margin of victory in Iloilo, where her then political ally Senate Franklin Drilon hails.
But Gico said all these were not true.
The Laguindingan project had not taken off immediately because its foreign-assisted funds were not released as the project still lacks the domestic counterparts from the government, he said.
"The Iloilo and Bacolod airports project had already taken off when the Laguindingan project was still on the preconstruction stage. So there was no transfer of funds from Laguindingan to Iloilo," the DOTC official told the provincial board.
Meanwhile, Gico said that as of December 15, the project has secured another set of foreign loan totaling $62.75 million. This funds form part the revised project cost of P7.853 billion which was approved by the government last September.
The 2002 projected cost was only at P5.385 billion. Civil works will start January 2008, he added.
Gico appeared before the Provincial Board after PB member Francisco Bade earlier expressed concern over the LAPD's status, saying not much of its goings-on are reported or coordinated with the provincial legislature.
"Over at Iloilo, work is already being done on its airport project. But we have to realize that funding for the two projects are different since the Iloilo project is funded by the Japanese while the Laguindingan airport project is in turn funded by the South Korean Export-Import bank," he said.
Despite this Drilon, then the Senate President, said he would work towards expediting the release of the funding and other requirements needed to fast track the implementation of the airport project.
And while then Mayor Vicente Emano welcomed Drilon's statement of support he pointed out that politics caused the delay in the airport project's implementation.
Emano recounted that prior to last year's elections the Laguindingan international airport project was identified as the top priority projects to be implemented in the country.
However the mayor said things turned around when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fared poorly in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental in the last elections and achieved a margin of victory in Iloilo.
"Of course the Senate President won't admit it but the Iloilo airport project was prioritized. That was to be expected but it must be pointed out that the Laguindingan international project was the first priority," Emano said during his "Mayor's Move" program last Saturday.
