NANCHANG CITY , JIANGXI – Even from far-away China , Gov. Erico Aumentado averted another obstacle that could have derailed the implementation of the Panglao Airport when the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) chair instructed the referral of the project back to the NEDA Central Visayas office to review its new costing. The Philippines-Japan Airport Consultants (Phil.JAC) had submitted a P7.542 billion costing after conducting the airport's detailed engineering design. The governor who was then in Shanghai , when informed of the development by Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) Assistant General Manager Tirso Serrano, immediately relayed the near-problem to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He also requested Secretary Gabriel Claudio, who has been acting as Bohol 's link to the President since the death of Undersecretary Malou Frostrom, to follow it up with her.

The President acted with dispatch on the governor's report. She ordered Socio-Economic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director General Augusto Santos to implement her previous instruction to clear the bidding for the airport runway and allied facilities, and the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) of the terminal building, navigational lighting and other equipment for the NEDA ICC technical board's processes. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita informed Aumentado of the President's action done during the Legislative and Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting Thursday in Malacanang. Aumentado received the good news that same night during the dinner meeting hosted by Vice Gov. Sun Gang and other high officials of Jiangxi , Bohol 's sister province in China , at the plush Jiangxi Hotel in Nanchang City.

The governor expressed his gratitude to the President through the executive secretary, for the speedy resolution of another Panglao airport thorny issue. Earlier on, the governor literally burned his cellphone lines by calling Santos and NEDA Region 7 Director Marlene Rodriguez to facilitate the resolution of the process ordered by NEDA ICC Technical Board Chair Rolando Tungpalan. He got positive responses. In fact, Santos texted Aumentado of his letter to MIAA General Manager Alfonso Cusi to proceed with the runway bidding as ordered by the President, bypassing in the process the Tungpalan instruction for NEDA 7 to review the new project costings first. He also asked Ermita to request the President to grant an audience to the Jiangxi trade mission on November 25-28 in the Philippines. Sun requested the Bohol chief executive to accompany the trade mission to Malacanang. The news on the Panglao airport development elicited a commitment from the Jiangxi officials to send more tourists to Bohol and strengthen further the two provinces' friendly and cooperative relations in tourism, education, agriculture, mining, trade and industry. The governor also also called Tungpalan to revisit his action because the project was previously approved by the NEDA ICC TB and that the runway and allied facilities costing was within the original P4.2 billion as per feasibility study. Besides, three major companies have expressed intent to participate in a BOT bidding of the terminal building, navigational and other equipment.

Failing to reach Tungpalan, he requested a mutual friend, NEDA Legal Division Director Fortunato “Bec-Bec”Abrenilla from Jagna town, to relay his request to the former. Aumentado identified the three BOT interested parties as DMCI Resources, Inc. Metro Pacific Holdings and Sta. Clara International Construction Co. with Dubai and British partners. To recall, Bohol and Jiangxi signed a sisterhood agreement on May 8,2006 in Nanchang City . President Arroyo and Minister Meng Jian Zhu of China 's Ministry of Public Security witnessed the signing. The sisterhood between the two provinces, packaged by Ambassador Carlos Chan, took place after Aumentado accompanied Meng's delegation to an audience with President Arroyo in Malacanang. Sun who is in charge of Jiangxi culture, education and foreign affairs, among others, had come with Ye Lei, director general of the General Office the Jiangxi Provincial People's Government; Wang Yusen, deputy director general; Han Huilan, deputy director general of tourism administration; Fu Pengpeng, deputy director general of the Foreign Affairs Office and Gu Jianhong, division director for International Exchange. Leng Saimeng had acted as interpreter. Ye and Fu had visited Bohol during the 1st Jiangxi-Bohol Friendship Day celebration on May 8, 2008 . With the governor in his Thursday dinner meeting with the Jiangxi officials in Nanchang were Executive Assistant Romulo Tagaan and journalist June Blanco.