|
BORONGAN
CITY—South East Asian Airlines (Seair) will fly the
Manila-Borongan route beginning next month in the
first-ever direct commercial flight from Manila to
Eastern Samar that residents here say will spur the
province’s takeoff as a major business and tourism hub
in the region.
Seair’s
inaugural flight is set on Monday, September 1, or
barely a month after Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone and
top Seair executives sealed an agreement covering
twice-a-week flights from Manila to this city and vice
versa.
The
initial regular flights after the inaugural one this
Sunday will be on Monday and Friday, catering mainly to
passengers from Eastern Samar who have been accustomed
to motoring for four to five hours straight between
Tacloban City and this province just to take their
flights to and from Manila.
Eastern Samar residents say this inaugural flight is an apt symbol
for the economic takeoff of this province as it will
take place less than a year after the province’s
“graduation” from “Club 20,” or the group of the
country’s 20 poorest provinces.
“The
populace of Eastern Samar has been waiting for this for
a very long time,” said Evardone of this new Seair
route. “This will be a landmark achievement as it will
mark the very first time for Estehanons to have direct
commercial flights to and from Manila.”
“Less
than a year has passed since our province’s graduation
from ‘Club 20’ and concrete signs of development and
progress have already started coming our way,” said
Evardone, whose heftier public investments in
infrastructure and human capital are widely seen here to
have helped pole-vault the province out of chronic
poverty.
The
provincial and city governments are preparing a program
to welcome the passengers on Sunday’s inaugural flight,
who will include Evardone, Seair president Avelino
Zapanta, Borongan City Mayor Fidel Anacta Jr. and League
of Mayors president Javier Zacate.
The
governor said that Seair’s venture in the province is
just “the preliminary trigger to greater economic
activities in the province” as Philippine Airlines has
similarly committed to open PAL Express flights in
Eastern Samar in the weeks ahead.
With two
of the country’s airlines doing business here amid the
province’s nascent economic turnaround, Evardone voiced
optimism that Eastern Samar will soon emerge as a major
business and tourism haven not only in the region but
also in the rest of the Visayas.
Sharing
Evardone’s optimism and hopes for the province’s future
are prominent personalities like premier ABS-CBN
talk-show host Boy Abunda, who has been meeting with the
young governor to tackle ways of developing and
promoting the local tourist attractions with the opening
of direct flights from Manila to this city.
Abunda
is a native of Borongan—the capital of Eastern Samar
which became a city only a year ago—and has committed to
Evardone to help promote local tourist destinations and
scout for investors who could help develop tourism
potentials all over the province.
Many
Eastern Samar residents are similarly excited about the
direct flights to their province from Manila and are
just as bullish on the province’s future, with local
business leaders like Aileen Arago, who said, “I am
happy that Governor Evardone took the initiative of
inviting airlines to the province because this will
bring about more advantages on our part.”
Belen
Montes of Maydolong town said, meanwhile, that traveling
to Tacloban to catch the flights to and from Manila is
eating much of their time and energy as they have to
travel four to five hours to reach the Leyte airport.
“Now that we will have a direct flight to Manila, we
will only have to take a short, 30-minute ride to the
airport from our place,” she added. |
