NAGA City, Camarines Sur—Thousands of affected farmers have vowed not to sell their farms to the government to give way to the expansion of the Naga City airport located at the province’s capital town of Pili.
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has allocated P3.5 billion for the expansion of the Naga airport.
The plan to expand the airport was hatched during the administration of then-President Joseph Estrada. It was shelved in deference to the strong opposition voiced by the farmers.
Expansion of the project is expected to start early in 2017.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) identified four other less populated areas in the province as an alternate site for the airport project. These alternate sites are the towns of Libmanan, Pasacao, Ocampo and San Jose, but local officials insisted to expand the Pili airport instead, said Arturo Bismonte, president of the Nabiga, Torac, Binasagan Irrigators Association.
Project oppositors are pointing at Gov. Luis Miguel Villafuerte, Pili Mayor Alexis San Luis and Rep. Leni G. Robredo of Camarines Sur as the parties behind the push for the airport’s expansion.
They said they were never consulted about the project and that the government is offering P500,000 per hectare for the farmers’ land through the DOTC. They said their farms are not for sale and this is nonnegotiable.
“What is insulting is the provincial government is offering us a price of P80,000 per hectare,” the farmers said.
Bismonte said plans to expand the airport runway by two more kilometers would already affect almost 135 hectares of prime, highly productive and fully irrigated agricultural lands, 20 hectares of which are allocated for palay-seed production to supply the entire Bicol region.
“We are not selling our farms and that’s nonnegotiable. The only option is for the government to look for other sites, as the Neda has recommended,” Bismonte added.
The farmers claimed that since the runway will be repositioned, it would certainly cut across the irrigation canals from Mount Isarog, the source of water to irrigate the farmlands and other areas. The plan is to elevate the runway by at least 3 meters. This would surely cause severe flooding in Pili, Bismonte said.
Should the project push through, DOTC officials said the additional 2 kilometers in the runway can accommodate narrow-bodied Airbus planes.
The Camarines Sur provincial board had initially fought for the construction of the Bicol International Airport, but it failed. It was instead put up in the upland barangay of Comon in Daraga, Albay, the construction of which is now on stage three. Named as main proponent of the P4-billion Bicol International Airport in Daraga town is Albay Gov. Joey S. Salceda.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya has given the green light for the start of the airport expansion in 2017, saying the budget is already included for the year’s General Appropriation Act.
Despite strong opposition against the airport expansion project, the DOTC and local officials are adamant about pushing the project through.
William Pitallo, the farmers’ irrigators association vice president, said the farmers will sell their farms and that the government should focus on reviving the much-needed Bicol Railway System instead.
He said the railway would bring more benefits to the public than the airport expansion, which would benefit only the smaller, rich segment of Albay society.