The necessary amended environmental compliance certificate (ECC) has been secured for the new Bohol airport project which is set for full-blast implementation beginning next year. By sheer coincidence, the concrete execution of the airport plan in 2014 will be in cadence with the massive rehabilitation effort for Bohol to rise from the ravages of the October 15 great earthquake. An economic fundamental, the modern airport can, also by raw fate, thus be immensely significant to the province’s recovery from losses to the most destructive movement of Bohol’s tectonic plates in history, according to Gov. Edgar Chatto. The flight infrastructure of international standard will be built on Panglao island, which was spared from what was also the deadliest earthquake on record to batter the province.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) issued the amended ECC owing to the project’s new call, the New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environment Protection Project (NBACSEPP), area expansion and additional facility. The airport has been conceptualized as an “eco-airport” so that it will be constructed as an environmentally-friendly airport using the expert Japanese technology. As a matter of transparency, Chatto disclosed the submission to him of a copy of the amended ECC from OIC Dir. Dante Lulu of the Project Management Service (PMS) of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). The disclosure likewise effectively complied with the requirement of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which both technically and financially assists the project.

The governor forwarded the environmental document to NBACSEPP Local Project Management Team thru its secretariat head and consultant on infrastructure Engr. Rosalinda Yu. After over 20 years of planning and pushing, the project would finally take off to reality with the Philippine government’s signing of a Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan agreement with JICA last March. The JICA last month submitted to the Philippine government and Bohol province the final detailed design study report which serves as the masterplan for the ultimate execution of the P7.4 billion project. The inking of the ODA agreement secured the huge bulk of the financing for the airport while Pres. Benigno S .Aquino III had already assured that there is P20 billion in savings this year which could be tapped for Bohol’s rehabilitation from quake disaster.

The Japanese loan package for the airport construction was sealed with counterpart fund commitment from the Philippine government. Bohol’s three congressmen---Rene Relampagos, Aris Aumentado and Arthur Yap---have pushed for a multi-billion Bohol rehabilitation fund in multi-year package that is separate and distinct from the national government’s commitment to the airport project. Both the House of Representatives and Senate have identified further fund sources and mechanics to aid the reconstruction and recovery of Bohol and other calamity-stricken areas in the country. The new Bohol airport is among the Aquino administration’s priority big-ticket infrastructure projects aimed at sustaining and accelerating economic growth and widespread development. Chatto on Thursday discussed with the three congressmen the Bohol rehabilitation plan, which they also presented later on the same day to visiting House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. at the Governor’s Mansion. Prior to the arrival of the House leader, the four Bohol officials identified possible palliative immediate solutions to the prevailing power crisis in the whole island as an effect of monster howler Yolanda’s devastation of the Leyte-side facilities of the Leyte-Bohol interconnection. Chatto said it has been a priority of his administration to build land-based power facilities that produce electricity right in Bohol and not just largely rely on energy generated and transmitted from outside the province. This is same principle applied to the new Bohol airport which will be constructed with a solar power generation system. The airport complex will have a passenger terminal building which multi-curved roof is to be covered with solar panels that convert into electricity the energy from the eternal sun. (Ven rebo Arigo)