Bohol International Airport project to start moving

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol – Amidst concerns that the construction of the Panglao Bohol International Airport (PBIA) will not push through, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has recently approved the construction of the runway, control tower, and other navigation facilities using the P4.2 billion ready fund for the project.

Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado said the President has nodded to the immediate construction of the 2.5 kilometer runway and the installation of the lighting and navigation facilities during a meeting with Bohol officials and funding agencies last week.

Aumentado said President Arroyo has directed the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) to immediately kick off the construction of the runway, control tower, and other navigation facilities for the P7.6 billion international airport in Panglao Island.

At the weekly Governor’s Reports, Aumentado told Boholanos that National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Augusto Santos has already received the MIAA letter last October 7, upon orders of the president, asking them to immediately green light the project using the P4.2B which NEDA has approved earlier.

He also reported that NEDA, through Sec. Santos is set to flick the switch for the bidding anytime within the week.

Over this, the governor added that the MIAA has already studied the terms of reference on the bidding of the runway, tower, lighting and airport navigational facilities.

With this, the bidding of the project is set to begin this week and the projects engineering works to be awarded as soon before the real groundbreaking this December, the governor assured.

The MIAA initially vowed P3.2 billion while the Department pf Transportation and Communication pushed across the table P1 billion for the P4.2 billion facility set to be constructed in the southwestern part of Panglao town.

As for the remaining structures that could not be funded anymore, Aumentado, during the meeting with the President at the Bahay Pangarap presented his formula.

The last term governor proposed that the terminal building of the facility be put on a build-operate-transfer scheme, where he mentioned interested private contractors willing to put up the funds.

It may be recalled that President Arroyo has wanted Panglao Airport to rise before her term ends in 2010. This she said during her State of the Nation Address in 2008 when she bared her tourism super region plan for the Visayas.

People have started asking if the airport is definitely going to happen with the dying down of the news after President Arroyo launched the P4.7B project to be funded by the Department of Transportation and Communication in 2008.

The latest development, however, ignites a new hope that Bohol may indeed be poised to fly economically when the airport gets into the wind. #