Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Air Force sets aside area in base for Centcom
THE Philippine Air Force (PAF) has already set aside an area at the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base where the Central Command (Centcom) can set up its offices.
Brig. Gen. Nicomedes Corpuz Jr. said they are following the orders of President Arroyo.
Corpuz said the transfer may take six months to one year, depending on how soon Centcom officials can put up the infrastructure needed.
Although Corpuz could not say how big the area is, he said it is near the Mactan Air Base Elementary School.
Camp Lapu-Lapu
Arroyo personally relayed her order to Maj. Gen. Cardozo M. Luna for Centcom to vacate Camp Lapu-Lapu, located in Barangays Banilad, Apas and Busay, Cebu City.
In a talk with Cebu media last Aug. 3, Arroyo said Centcom’s transfer to Mactan will mean that the 80 hectares of land in Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu City, which the military has occupied since the 1950s, will revert to the Cebu Provincial Government.
The Capitol donated the property to the AFP on condition that it will be given back to the Provincial if the property is no longer used for military activities.
With the transfer to Mactan, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia can fully recover Capitol’s asset and convert the area into a business district, just like what had been done to the golf course along Archbishop Reyes Ave., Cebu City, which is now the site of the Cebu Business Park.
PAF Maj. Cupid C. Ortiz, public information officer of the Tactical Operations Command (TOC), said the air base is the home to the 220th Airlift Wing, which is in charge of C-130 planes; the 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing, which is in charge of the UH1H choppers; the TOC; and the 2nd Tactical Operations Wing, which manages the base.
Corpuz said the portion of land that the Centcom will occupy has already been defined and agreed upon by the PAF, headed by Commanding General Horacio Tolentino, and Centcom authorities.
“Of course, there are processes like the signing of agreement but the area has already been allocated to them,” Corpuz said. (EOB)
