8 new airports finished this year

The government is set to complete this year eight airport projects worth some P15.5 billion to promote tourism and transportation services in five "super" regions, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Management Staff (PMS) director general Cerge Remonde said the eight airport projects are in Casiguran, Bulan, Kalibo, New Iloilo, New Bacolod, Siargao, Ozamis and Cotabato.

The eight are among 31 priority airport projects costing P94.37 billion targeted for completion by 2011 under the Medium-Term Public Investment Program (MTPIP).

At a media briefing at Malacañang with Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Alfonso Cusi, Remonde said the opening of 10 new airports and the improvement of 21 others are part of the "social payback from the implementation of fiscal and other economic reforms of President Arroyo."

"Four are due to be finished by the first half of the year, namely the Casiguran, Kalibo, New Iloilo, and Ozamis airports, while the rest are expected to be completed before the year ends. Twenty others will be completed before the end of 2010 and three more by 2011," Remonde said.

Mrs. Arroyo outlined the super regions concept in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24, 2006. The five super regions are the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle, Metro Luzon Urban Beltway, Central Philippines Mega-Region, Mindanao Mega-Region and the Cyber Corridor, which will serve as the cyber link between the four regions.

Of the 31 airport projects, Remonde said 16 are being improved or constructed in Central Philippines; six in the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle; seven in Mindanao, and two in the Luzon Urban Beltway that would improve the transport of agricultural products and provide access to key tourism destinations nationwide.

On the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, Remonde said, remedial work must first be completed before its targeted rolling opening, originally set for this month, can push through.

Cusi said the March 31 opening of NAIA-3 was postponed on the recommendation of Hong Kong-based consultants hired by MIAA who had found deficiencies in the construction of the terminal.

The MIAA ordered a structural review of the NAIA-3 after a portion of it collapsed days before its scheduled opening.

Cusi said they have given Takenaka Corp., the contractor hired by the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) to build the NAIA-3, until March 17 to submit a formal schedule on when the defects in the terminal’s structural work would be repaired. – Paolo Romero