In the case of the so-called movers and shakers of the ambitious Panglao Bohol International Airport, we cannot help but likened them to an election victory. By this analogy, what we exactly mean is that any Tom, Dick and Harry in Bohol's officialdom is staking his own paternity claim to the project. Talk of the Mussolinic saying victory has many fathers while defeat is an orphan? More so when it was announced that it was one of the eight projects programmed by the Aquino administration where their funding component will come from the Public-Private Partnership (PP). As if on cue, everyone and his uncle immediately come forward to claim credit that it was through “my intervention” that the project was included in the PPP bonanza. Who intervened what is of no moment. Although, it did make a good sound byte if the enterprising public official hit the right note vis-à-vis the elusive project, claiming paternity to the project is just as good while it lasts.
But with all the noise and hoopla of the Panglao airport, what now is the latest update? We have yet to hear it from our local leaders baby-sitting its ultimate implementation but meanwhile, let this BGLante make a reality check, before airport proponents will cry in frustration as to what actually happen. Recent press releases coming from the usual suspects indicated that the project was up for construction early next year. Really? If so, then we are in for a happy ending after contemplating that it was lost in limbo the moment GMA vowed out of office. But the reality on the ground says otherwise. What we read in yesterday's Business Section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer said it all. The meat of the story was that only three Public Private Partnership (PPP) “ready-to-go” projects worth P74 billion identified by the Private Sector Coalition is up for implementation in 2011.
According to the boxed story, in order to jumpstart Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the country, a few high-impact ready-to-go PPP infrastructure projects should be implemented through an open, transparent, and competitive process. What caught our attention in this story was that nowhere was the Panglao airport included in the order of priority up for implementation. In the same story, the three projects mentioned were the LRT Line 1 South Extension, LRT Line 2 East Extension and the North-South Cavite Expressway. In parting, the PPP story ended with this guarded optimism: Because infrastructure development is a continuing effort, a pipeline of bankable PPP projects to be tendered in the next two to six years should also be developed. The government in partnership with the donor agencies, is encouraged to provide for a Project Development Facility (PDF) to finance the feasibility studies for this pipeline of projects. Summing it up, it was clear in the story that not until 2011 is the public and competitive tender of the three priority projects will take place. So what now Panglao airport?. The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. |
