Negros Occ. LGU puts on hold plane purchase

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The plan of the provincial government to purchase a Cessna plane, costing around P15 million for aerial surveys and cloud-seeding operations, has been temporarily put on hold.

Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the Capitol is still weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the proposal, which is currently being criticized by the media.

Last month, Marañon said the province is buying a Cessna 206 light plane to modernize its aerial surveys and cloud-seeding operations.

The proposal was made by Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez Jr. two years ago, and brought up the matter again last May.

Alvarez, a licensed pilot, said the proposal, which had the concurrence of the Provincial Board, was to buy a second-hand six-seater Cessna 206 light plane worth P15 million. A brand new Cessna 206 plane costs P20 million, he said.

PB Member Patrick Escalante, finance committee chairman, said there is a fund set aside for the purchase based on the P80-million savings from the Capitol’s calamity fund last year.

Vicfran Defante, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Program, proposed for the P15 million allocation to buy the plane.

The governor said the purchase of this kind of plane is “no longer a luxury but a necessity in modernizing the provincial government’s services to its people.” 

Marañon said if the provincial government has its own plane, the monitoring of the province’s forests against encroachment and illegal logging will be more efficient. — (FREEMAN)