With a gestation period of 20 long years and spanning at least five presidencies, is the planned airport in Panglao now for real?

The impatience was shown by questions posed by media during the weekly radio program “Kita ug ang Gobernador” exposing in the process a heavy doze of fatalism from those who were bullish about the project construction. No more ground-breakings but the roar of bulldozers will follow as soon as the bidding requirements are completed, thus blurted Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC)Sec. Jose “Ping” de Jesus when asked by media what really was the score of the Panglao airport. For several instances in the past, the public was treated with the spectacle of “ground-breaking” to signal the start of the giant project, only to discover that it was only “for show or press release”.

As if making a fearless forecast, the DOTC top honcho declared that the P7 billion new Bohol airport will take shape in the next three years. Media appeared to be fed up about the possibility of an airport project after it has been hyped several times before that “what seemed to be the last hurdle is the matter of implementing it” Only to discover later that it was all media hype. After several fits and starts, the project remains in limbo until this latest assurances courtesy of the top guns of the DOTC. In fact, only a while ago, it was reported that the funding approved by Congress in the amount of P1.7 billion was high jacked and diverted to another airport project, this time, the Manila International Airport Terminal 3. But when de Jesus was asked about the alleged diversion of the Panglao airport funds, he feigned ignorance and knew nothing about it. With hopes of the planned airport kept alive with DOTC assurances, it won't be long that Bohol will have a new airstrip replacing what Japanese aviation experts tagged as “the most dangerous airport in the world,” the Tagbilaran City airport.

The fulfillment of the airport dream is “sentimental” to both Pres. Benigno Aquino III and Gov. Edgar Chatto because the project was conceived at the time of the president's mother, the late Pres. Corazon Aquino, and the governor's uncle, former Gov. Constancio Torralba. Oozing with optimism, De Jesus said the ambitious infrastructure will be “a reality” in the next three years”. This optimism was expressed by the DOTC boss during the meeting of the new Bohol airport Local Project Management Team (LPMT) presided by Chatto at Bohol Tropics on Thursday. The meeting was attended by DOTC Usec. George Esguerra, Usec. Ruben Reinoso, Jr., Rep. Rene Relampagos, the technical experts sent by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), LPMT consultant Jose Torralba who is a former DOTC assistant secretary and ex-city mayor, Provincial Administrator Alfonso Damalerio II, other provincial officials, and Panglao Mayor Benedicto Alcala.

The JICA team was led by Todashi Aoi of the Japan Aviation Consultants (JAC), Inc. who sharply described the existing congested airport right in the heart of Tagbilaran as “the most dangerous airport in the world.” From the sky, the Japanese experts mistook the city airport runway for a rooftop until their plane touched down and they realized that it was an airport. De Jesus confirmed the timetable for the new Bohol airport bidding in September and awarding of contract in December leading to its concrete implementation starting next year. Former Gov. Torralba, whose term visualized the project, joined the meeting and expressed “how happy” he was of the development tending to finally materialize the airport plan after more than two decades. Since conception, the project had passed through four governors---Torralba, David Tirol, Relampagos and Erico Aumentado, the latter two now congressmen---unrealized. Relampagos and Chatto cited, however, the past chain of efforts sustaining the momentum of the project until where it is successfully phased today. Chatto was Relampagos' vice governor from 1995 to 2001.

The top DOTC officials brought along with them the JICA team to repackage the project into the best public-private partnership (PPP) modality of implementation. The PPP, under which scheme the new Bohol airport and other major projects in the country are prioritized, is regarded even by the global fund managers and international investors as a landmark economic policy of the Aquino administration, according to Chatto. De Jesus foresaw a “mad rush of investors” as he revealed at least 45 global and local investors who are keenly interested in the PPP undertakings. The national government alone has already earmarked P1 billion this year to jumpstart the Bohol airport plan execution, and DOTC officials corrected reports that the fund has been realigned.

AIRPORT NOT BY ACCIDENT

The DOTC secretary said the new Bohol airport is “not an airport by accident” because it is now demanded more than ever by the growing air passenger traffic prominently attributed to the booming tourism industry. To “serve the tourism industry” is in fact the common factor why the Bohol airport is prioritized together with those in Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Daraga in Albay and Laguindingan in Misamis Oriental. According to the JICA team presentation by Aoi, the air traffic has grown at an annual average of over 30% in the last five years from 198,000 plane passengers in 2005 to 573,000 in 2010. There were even 20,000 passengers more in 2010, surpassing the air traffic forecast for Tagbilaran airport last year. Bohol's air traffic in 2020 has been forecast to hit nearly one million passengers annually, for which the airport on the 233-hectare site in Panglao should precisely be built. The JICA team noted that Bohol has now 10 flights daily “from sunrise to sunset” yet the length of the Tagbilaran airport is still relatively “the same since ancient time” despite past extension works. The facilities at the city airport are either “obsolete” or getting into it, “not in accordance with safety requirements, and capacity almost saturated,” the team said in their study.

The Japanese expert study further notes that the runway strip is narrow which is recognized to be unsafe as it not complies with the recommended minimum of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Code 3 runway. The JICA has labeled the Panglao project as the “New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environment Protection Project” since it has not only explored the viability and implementation scheme of the airport under PPP. JICA at the same time sent experts on sustainable tourism development and pre-investment study for sewerage system in Bohol, particularly Panglao island and Tagbilaran City. The group included deputy team leader and regional development planner Masahiro Ibayashi and environmental/sustainable tourism development expert Kuniomi Hirano, both of Nippon Koei, Co., Ltd.; air navigation system planner Norihito Fukuhara and terminal management specialist Hiroshi Miyakawa of Japan Aviation Consultants, Inc.; sewerage planner Nobuyuki Gonohe of NJS Consultants; and PPP transaction adviser Yasuhisa Furusawa of Price waterhouse Coopers Co., Ltd.

SENTIMENTAL

Former Gov. Torralba recounted then Pres. Corazon Aquino, the iconic mother of the incumbent president, asking him, “What do you want to be remembered?” He replied to the first of the country's only two lady presidents ever that he just would wish to be remembered as “one of the Boholanos who have changed (Bohol's) economic landscape,” with the airport in his mind for accomplishment even already beyond his time. According to Relampagos, it was the Cory government that gave the Torralba administration the initial funding for the UP Planades study, the initial research, for the Panglao airport project. Relampagos, a dependable ally of the Chatto administration not just for the new airport development, had then served in the Torralba capitol as a member of the provincial board representing the youth sector. The DOTC secretary, who had himself also served the Cory cabinet as the DPWH secretary, recalled having first visited Bohol coincidentally during the governorship of Torralba. On Friday's live broadcast of Kita ug Ang Gobernador , De Jesus said that apart from the airport, the foundational approval of the Bohol Circumferential Road Project also happened in Cory's time, with him as DPWH secretary and Torralba as governor.

The DOTC secretary and Esguerra, the undersecretary for planning, joined Chatto in his live report to the people and interaction with the local media at the Governor's Mansion. The weekly program is heard worldwide via Internet. In the LPMT meeting at Bohol Tropics, Chatto asked De Jesus to extend his and fellow Boholanos' deepest gratitude to Pres. Aquino. The highest DOTC official hinted that the credibility of a government leader is crucial to getting full support to development effort, a yardstick strictly observed by most investors and fund aiders. Chatto netted a satisfaction rating of 77%, according to the result of the latest Holy Name University (HNU) provincewide survey released just on Thursday, which is reputed to be the highest ever by a sitting Bohol governor.

The new Bohol airport will be the eleventh international airport in the country, although it is designed to complement and not compete with the Cebu airport in Mactan, one of only two international airports in the Visayas. The other existing one is in Kalibo, Aklan. De Jesus declared the new airport will signify the “beginning of what Bohol can be tomorrow.” Chatto presented to De Jesus a token key of the province for “opening the heart” of the DOTC secretary---and of the second Aquino administration he serves---to the Boholanos. (With reports from Ven rebo Arigo)