AN AIRPORT that will be established in the town of Medellin in northern Cebu is expected to provide career opportunities to locals and help diversify the economy instead of solely relying on agriculture.
Giles Anthony Villamor, municipal planning and development coordinator, said they also hope to attract flying schools once the airport is completed.
He said the state-run Philippine State College of Aeronautics Mactan already has an extension campus in Barangay Curva.
“We can’t even compete with Mactan [Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIA)]. The only thing we have to do is, number one, cater to flying schools. We understand the air traffic in Mactan is getting worse,” he told SunStar Cebu on Friday Aug. 11, 2023.
He said that although aviation schools in Lapu-Lapu City are competent to teach theories to their students, they struggle to conduct hands-on training due to the heavy air traffic over Mactan Island.
Villamor said aviation students from Mactan-based schools usually conduct their practice flights in the neighboring province of Bohol, or in Ormoc City in Leyte.
‘Strategic’ location
Villamor said the proposed airport will be built on 35 hectares of land in the heart of the soon-to-rise special economic zone in Medellin that will straddle the barangays of Caputatan Sur and Canhabagat.
He said that it will make it more convenient for locators and investors to travel to the 538-hectare Northern Cebu Economic Zone that will be set up in the town.
“Number one, if we are going to build an economic zone, we must have an airport and a port,” he said in Cebuano and English.
Villamor earlier told SunStar Cebu that the Port of Kawit in Barangay Kawit will also undergo a P110-million expansion so it can accommodate more excursions and speed up the delivery of the town’s sugarcane harvest to neighboring Negros Island.
Currently, only one shipping line operates in the port, traversing the Kawit-Santa Fe route with two additional planned voyages daily since the town’s sugarcane planters ship their harvest in Tabuelan to milling firms in Negros. Tabuelan is two towns south of Medellin on Cebu’s western seaboard facing Negros Island.
Gateway
Villamor added that the new airport, unlike MCIA, will only cater to domestic flights. He said its operation will be similar to the aerodrome of Bantayan Airport in Santa Fe town in Bantayan Island, and the Camotes Airport in the town of San Francisco, Camotes Islands.
Once fully operational, he said the airport will open up the north of Cebu to more visitors, and will help facilitate quick response to both natural and man-made calamities in neighboring towns and islands.
“Medellin is strategically located. We are at the tip of northern Cebu, next to us are Bantayan Island, Kinatarcan Island, and there is also Malapascua, and other towns in Leyte. If we have mobilization and we have an airport, it will be easier (for) the provision of assistance in calamities,” he said.
He said that when typhoon Odette struck the town in December 2021, roads leading to Medellin were blocked by debris and residents were cut off from help for days.
Medellin is located in the fourth congressional district, and is 119 kilometers north of Cebu City.
Funding
Villamor said the Department of Transportation will fund the airport project, but he did not say how much it will cost.
He said ongoing civil works are focused on the construction of a P200-million four-lane road leading to the airport, which is being funded by the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) 7 and the DPWH Cebu First Engineering District.
Villamor also confirmed that the MCIAA will manage the airport’s operations.
The town official did not provide a timeline for the project. He also said the airport’s official name has yet to be decided.