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GOVERNMENT planners want to complete a P4.041-billion
international-airport project in Panglao Island in Bohol
by 2010 to tap a segment of the growing regional
budge-travel market in
Asia and homecoming overseas Filipino market.
According to project deputy manager Edgar Doña, air
passenger arrivals in Bohol had been “phenomenal” in the
past years while Panglao’s secluded white-sand beaches
have always been a favorite among foreign tourists.
“Arrivals in Bohol have experienced a phenomenal growth
in the last five years. There is also a high-level
growth of the low-cost carrier market and that is what
exactly Panglao is about to experience,” Doña, of
private project consultant TCGI Engineers, said.
The
project will be funded by internal government funds as
ordered by President Arroyo in July 2005. The Manila
International Airport Authority has committed to
bankroll P2.9 billion of the project cost, with help
from the Department of Transportation and Communications
(P0.153 billion) and other government agencies.
The
project is hoping to get an endorsement from the
Central Visa-yas Regional Development Council this week.
Doña
said a 2.5-kilometer-long runway is enough to
accommodate the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 series, which
is the core fleet of most regional and budget airlines
in Asia. It could also accommodate bigger aircraft but
only as an alternative airport for nearby Mactan Cebu
International Airport in Cebu.
Noris
Oculam, president of the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, said the airport would also help returning
OFWs from Bohol.
Oculam
said Bohol has an annual remittance of $57 million from
OFWs—the biggest among all the provinces in the country.
“If we
can encourage more of the Boholanos working abroad to
come home more often, they would bring great help to the
economy of Bohol,” Oculam said.
The site
of the project, near barangays Bolod, Danao and Tawala
in Panglao town, edged another possible site in
barangays Tabalong, Tinago and Bingag in the nearby town
of
Dauis, also in
Panglao
Island.
A third
option—to rehabilitate the existing domestic airport in
Tagbilaran City—would have cost the government some P6.5
billion, the project consultants said.
Oculam,
however, said beach-resort owners lining the famed Alona
white-sand strip in Panglao are concerned about the
possible noise pollution that will be brought by the
presence of an airport nearby. He said the resorts
wanted to keep their seclusion, which is one of the
reasons foreign tourists come to the island.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people in
Bohol want the airport. One percent oppose it and these people
belong to the Alona beach community,” Oculam said.
Doña,
however, said newer aircraft are less noisy and would
not affect in a huge way the beachgoers in Alona. He
also allayed concerns about the coralline base of
Panglao Island, saying it could be solved with new
technology, ensuring a solid ground for the airport’s
runway.
Doña
said airline arrivals in
Bohol jumped from
31,641 in 2001 to 198,605 in 2005 and 241,484 in 2006. |
