While the bidding for the P20-billon expansion program for the Bacolod-Silay airport is being readied, preparations have already started for the gateway to Negros Occidental to receive international flights, Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.

Leonardia, senior vice-chair of the Congressional Committee on Transportation, inspected the airport last week. He said new immigration booths that will process incoming and departing passengers on international flights have already been installed, a press release from his office said.

“The booths are part of the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) system we have been lobbying for to prepare the airport for international flights,” Leonardia added.

He, however, said that they are not yet part of the P20-billion airport expansion program for Bacolod Silay that the National Economic Development Authority approved recently. “Since the CIQ is one of the things we can immediately do to encourage direct international flights, we are doing it ahead of the expansion,” he said.

SOUTH KOREAN FLIGHTS

The CIQ had been one of the concerns of a South Korean group that had wanted to schedule several flights directly to Bacolod.

The SoKor group had been working with Leonardia and John Orola, his consultant on tourism affairs, to facilitate these flights since last year,

In a letter to Leonardia last August, Kim Hong Ki, said they expected to do 23 direct flights to Bacolod from Incheon, So. Korea, from December this year to March next year. At 150 passengers per flight, this is expected to bring in an estimated 3,400 Korean tourists directly to Bacolod, Leonardia said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines team headed by Mecine Reyes, Bacolod Silay airport chief, met with Leonardia during his inspection.

Aside from Immigration, also needed are the Customs and Quarantine components to complete the so-called CIQ system that will process incoming foreigners. Leonardia said he has endorsed an appeal to former Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon to deploy customs monitors at the airport.

Immigration chief Siegfred Mison had also vowed to help install the CIQ, Leonardia said, adding that he and Orola took this up a year ago in a meeting with the BID chief.*

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