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Thursday, January 05, 2006
‘They can’t touch’ airport project
By Elias O Baquero
With Minerva B. Gerodias
CEBU CITY -- A plan to build a new runway for Mactan airport is safe from the Bohol governor’s threat to block it.
Besides, there is no need for the Regional Development Council’s (RDC) approval for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) to implement its P1-billion parallel runway.
The MCIAA wants this completed before the Asean Ministers’ Summit in December 2006, which will be held in Cebu.
Assistant Secretary Nilo Jatico, the MCIAA alternate chairman, gave this reaction to a statement of Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado that he will block the approval of the parallel runway proposed by MCIAA.
Aumentado was angered by the comment of MCIAA General Manager Adelberto F. Yap that an international airport in Panglao, Bohol, estimated to cost P4.2 billion, will just be a white elephant and will only increase the Philippines’ foreign debt.
As this developed, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said that she, like Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, will support a plan to build an international airport in Bohol.
Self-reliant
Jatico, a Cebuano and a retired major general of the Air Force, said that the MCIAA, which is attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), falls within the jurisdiction of Macalañang, not the RDC.
There’s no need for RDC to approve the project because MCIAA has its own charter, according to Yap.
“We have our own funds, we plan our destiny. We only report this to RDC for reportorial requirements. The National Government doesn’t give us money,” Yap said.
MCIAA will soon construct the parallel runway with its own funds, revealed Jatico. It is a requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which set 2007 as its deadline.
It is not only ICAO that requires international airports to have two runways, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States also sets the same standards.
MCIAA Board Member Valeriano Avila also said that RDC approval is not needed because MCIAA has its own funds.
Potential
The airport is used by almost 500,000 tourists every year. MCIAA caters to about 2.5 million international and domestic passengers annually.
Yap expects the figure to double towards year 2010.
Yap, in an earlier interview with Sun.Star Cebu, observed that facilities for fastcraft vessels plying between Cebu and Panglao would be better than an international airport that would cater to only one or two aircraft.
However, he stressed, he has nothing against the Panglao project.
But Governor Garcia said putting up an airport in Panglao Island, a known tourist destination, will further empower the province.
“Such a major infrastructure would offer not only Bohol but the rest of the region the bright prospects of economic growth,” she said. “We recognize the potential for growth in Bohol. Such potential must be given an opportunity to become a reality.”
Garcia added that vital to a nation’s development is the strengthening of the local government units in terms of infrastructure.
Unfavorable comments about their projects are bound to get on the nerves of Bohol and other provinces in the region, whose officials have complained that Cebu seems to be monopolizing major infrastructure ventures funded by the government.
A newly updated regional plan emphasizes the need to avoid unequal development in the region. (Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(January 5, 2006 issue)
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