Rep. Pryde Henry Teves (Neg. Or., 3rd District) is pushing for the relocation of the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport to a new site in Bacong town, about 10 minutes drive south of the capital of Negros Oriental.

The proposal is contrary to an earlier one designed to extend and expand the present one in Sibulan town, that Teves says has many disadvantages. He is proposing a new airport in Combado, Bacong, with about 200 hectares and a 2.5 kilometer runway, that will not cut across the national highway.

Teves said the initial expansion project of the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport is not feasible, as studies by the Japanese International Coordinating Agency and the Korean International Coordinating Agency have shown.

He said the expansion project will cost P2.5 billion, with the Department of Transportation and Communications already having reduced the appropriation to less than P1 billion per tranche.

A first appropriation of P500,000 for land acquisition had been included in the national budget but Teves said he had it cut and had the funds returned to the national coffers.

He said he is against the expansion of the Dumaguete airport because the area being eyed for development is thickly populated and would put the lives of the people there at risk as it is an urban area and it would cost the government a lot to purchase land or the houses in the area.

Land in the area would cost at least P2,000 per sq.m. while in Bacong it would only be about P300 per sq. m., he added.

Teves said he has asked the assistance of NEDA Region 7 director, Efren Carreon, to help push the project.

Carreon was in Dumaguete last week for the meeting of the Board of Regents of the Negros Oriental State University where he sits as member.

Teves said after the proposed new airport is approved, the old one will be converted into a training airport for all flying schools in the country. He said retired Philippine Air Force, Lt. Gen. William Hotchkiss, now the director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, has assured him that he will cancel all training airports of all flying schools in the country when a new airport has been built in Negros Oriental.

The proposed construction will take about four or five years, and is seen to boost the economy of the people in the town, particularly those in the quarrying business, and the main supplier of sand and gravel, Teves said.

DOTC will implement the project but the Bacong local government must spearhead the negotiations for land acquisition. Hotchkiss had recently visited the site in Bacong and Teves said he is convinced it is the best place for the new airport.*JFP

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