Aeronautics college okays temporary transfer to other site

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of the Philippine State College of Aeronautics (Philsca) said that they have agreed in principle to temporary transfer to a previously “unacceptable” relocation site found to be prone to floods and ground shaking.

Lawyer Carmelito Yadao-Sison, former Philsca officer-in-charge and Commission on Higher Education Legal Division chief, said that the board of trustees of the country’s only state funded flying school, have decided to consider the proposal of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for them to transfer to a spanking new campus along the West Service Road of the South Luzon Expressway in Pasay.

“There’s an agreement in principle but there are many conditions that has to be satisfied,” Sison told The Star.

Sison assured that the transfer will only happen once the BCDA agrees with certain conditionalities set by the Philsca board of trustees which is chaired by CHED chairman Emmanuel Angeles such as the conduct of certain improvement and remedial measures to prevent flooding and boost the structural integrity of the new schoolbuildings that will serve as temporary home of the state school.

Sison previously led a vocal chorus of opposition against the transfer to the proposed relocation site after a Geo-Hazard Assessment Report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau validated previous concerns raised by Philsca officers about the flooding problem and earthquake faultline concerns on their proposed relocation site.

Sison pointed out that the Philsca will still hold classes at their current 1.7 hectare home along Andrews Avenue just across the NAIA Terminal III when academic year 2010-11 opens on June 7. “We will open the school year still located at our old campus,” Sison said.

Sison said the Philsca board has aired the acceptability of relocating to a permanent site at the Basa Air Base in Pampanga which the BCDA could give them as site of a new permanent campus which should not be less than 20 hectares in size.