T The feared scrapping of the much-ballyhooed Panglao airport has made the reclamation project more urgent for the little folks. This was the observation given by residents in the “other” barangays in the town who have not benefited from the so-called boom felt in Panglao’s tourism belt. “We have one less option for development now with the Panglao airport project hanging in the balance,” fisherfolk in Doljo exclaimed. They said that somehow they were entertaining faint hopes that the airport will finally push through because it might open work opportunities for them. “At least we can apply as laborers during the construction stage and maybe as porters when it becomes operational,” they said in Cebuano. All that seems nothing but a distant dream now. In his first visit to Bohol since winning the 2010 elections, Pres. Benigno Aquino III said it would be more economical to develop the Tagbilaran airport than construct a new airport in Panglao.

Considering that Aquino will be in office for the next five years, his position will naturally carry enough weight in the policy directions of the concerned agencies. Prior to his visit, there was talk that the President would inaugurate the field office in Panglao to drum up interest in the airport project. Today, even Gov. Edgar Chatto has shifted his support to the Tagbilaran airport expansion project. Although Chatto was suspected of delaying the airport project when he was still congressman during the Arroyo administration, many thought he merely wanted it done during his term but that he was actually in favor of the Panglao airport project. After the President’s candid pronouncements, Chatto seemed to have jumped to the Tagbilaran airport bandwagon with his statements favoring Aquino’s position. This has thrown the expectations of Panglao residents out of the window.

No one is more affected than the small villagers who now see themselves deprived of another potential option for work opportunity. “This means that the reclamation project is now the only realistic hope for livelihood opportunity in the future,” residents of Barangay Poblacion remarked. Like their fellow fishermen in Doljo and Danao, the people in Poblacion do not expect much from other development projects in their side of Panglao. They noted that while many fishermen have found livelihood opportunities with tourism-oriented activities in the tourism belt, the opportunities are still not enough. “We are convinced that if the reclamation project of Oasis will push through, there is room for us to benefit from it,” Danao residents said. The fishermen, however, are very suspicious about the delay in the conduct of the feasibility study which Oasis has set as a condition for the start of the project. “We are starting to believe that there are influential people who are doing everything to prevent the conduct of the study because they are actually opposed to the reclamation project,” they added. The fishermen in the three towns said this can only mean more difficult days ahead for them. They, however, remain optimistic that if the present crop of politicians who are anti-reclamation will be replaced, the project will still materialized. “Life is a wheel. They are on top today but they will not be there all the time,” they rationalized.