Villarete: Keep an open mind on possible airport transfer

CEBU, Philippines - The general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport is asking the public to keep an open mind on the proposal to transfer the airport from its present location in Lapu-Lapu City to the town of Cordova.

Airport general manager Nigel Paul Villarete said the public should not close the door on this possibility believing that the proposal of Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy is not a “bad idea.”

“We should not close our eyes to it,” Villarete said.

Villarete cited the Cebu City South Reclamation Project wherein only a few believed that it will benefit the city when it was conceptualized by South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña in mid 90s.

According to Villarete, the SRP has changed the landscape of Cebu after its completion.

Sitoy has offered to host the airport at the 1,100 hectares of foreshore that he proposed to reclaim in Cordova.

Sitoy said that moving the airport to Cordova would lessen the traffic problem in Lapu-Lapu City.

Villarete however said that the technical consideration and urban design should be studied diligently like what happened before the airport was transferred from Lahug to Lapu-Lapu City.

The airport opened in the mid 1960s. It was built to replace the Lahug Airport, which could no longer be expanded due to safety and physical problems. The airport was then expanded in its later years to become the current Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

According to Villarete, it is no longer new to have an airport constructed in a reclaimed area citing the Kansai International Airport in Osaka offshore on reclaimed land and Incheon International Airport.

“We are not saying it’s feasible or not but we have also to get the view of the people. If it is viable well and good, if it is not viable fine and good, at least we presented our studies,” Villarete said. – (FREEMAN)