On this site will rise: Bohol may finally see its own international airport in this portion of Panglao Island after almost two decades of changing plans and seemingly lost funds. RIC V. OBEDENCIO

PANGLAO, Bohol -- Nearly 20 years after the idea was first proposed, Bohol finally seems set to have its own international airport located on the tourist island of Panglao.

The airport is to be built as part of the government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) plan with a public invitation to bid due out in August.

Local political leaders from governors down have long campaigned for a replacement of the small and heavily congested domestic airport located less than a mile from Tagbilaran City on the neighboring island of Bohol. The proposed new airport lies across the causeway and is a 40-minute drive away from the city.

And after several feasibility studies and many false starts which included a turf-breaking ceremony in 2008 by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, work is finally now scheduled to begin next year here and be completed by 2014 according to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Yet while local leaders say the vast majority of Boholanos are heavily behind the plan because it will lead to more tourists, jobs and economic development across Region VII, others argue it will badly affect the very tourist industry it has been designed in part to help.

When former President Arroyo visited Barangay Tawala to lay a capsule and signal the start of construction in May 2008, the cost was just PhP 4.2 billion (USD 97.6 million) and was to be funded by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and the DOTC. Three years on and under the PPP, the proposed new airport is now set to cost PhP 7.6 billion (USD 168 million).

The new airport will boast an initial 2.5-kilometer runway which will allow in bigger jets like the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 320. A feasibility plan from 2007 suggests the runway could be extended to 3.2 km in due course and the projected main terminal building later tripled in size from what is presently planned.

The airport will be able to cope with direct flights from the likes of Korea, China and elsewhere and thus have immigration facilities.

Yet no firm details beyond the very basic size of the runway and the projected total cost have yet been published on the government’s PPP site.

Despite that, earlier published plans show the runway dominating the western part of the island and effectively cutting it in two. It will result in aircraft taking off and landing directly over Alona Beach, world-famous as a prime diving destination.

One of the reasons Panglao Island was reportedly chosen as the site was because of its flat terrain and prevailing wind patterns.

Critics say the very things that attract tourists and divers to Panglao in the first place – the underdeveloped and pristine beaches, coastal ecology and the island’s natural beauty – will be lost to the massive development and so put off many of the very people the new development aims to attract.

Panglao Island is increasingly seen as an attractive alternative to Boracay by many visitors who see it as being over-developed despite not having any airport of its own.

Changing plan

The proposed airport was initially designed as a public investment led by MIAA which was planning to invest PhP 3 billion (USD 70 million) in corporate funds.

But it is now a PPP flagship project under President Benigno Aquino, with bids for its funding and construction expected to be put out to tender this coming August and contracts presently scheduled to be signed before the end of this year.

The decision to include the airport as part of PPP planning appears to stem from necessity since last August officials signaled that the new government no longer could find the funds to commit to the project.

Yet many people including civil society activists and church leaders still question the accuracy of successive studies and feasibility plans into the project: Some observers look at the financial and tourist figure projections given and wonder how long it will take to recoup the initial investment.

Some observers are privately worried that future realities of the project as a PPP will not live up to projections and may see canny private investors and their lawyers somehow saddle local communities, if not the national public with paying back much of the cost of the project if expected revenues fail to materialize.

Case for development

The office of the Panglao Airport Development Project Task Force is also now being built in the area, sending signs that plans would finally push thru. RIC V. OBEDENCIO

Former Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado lobbied hard for the airport over the course of his two terms through until 2010 and repeatedly argued how it would generate economic development as well as boost tourism in the province by reducing the cost and time for visitors traveling here.

In particular, it would open up the area to overseas Asian visitors who could arrive easily on a single flight from their home country.

The existing Tagbilaran City airport has a runway too short for wide-bodied aircraft and insufficient apron space. It also has a notoriously small terminal building and departure lounge the size of two classrooms – and no cargo building. Being located adjacent to the city, it is something of a safety hazard as well as having no available space for upgrading its facilities.

The Department of Tourism data shows that in 2010 alone, more than half a million national and international tourists came to Bohol. That figure is set to rise substantially according to a feasibility study for the proposed airport that was published in October 2007 and commissioned by the MIAA.

The study into the proposed new airport by TCGI Engineers suggested that by 2015, there could be almost a million visitors arriving yearly in Bohol with the figure rising up to 1.5 million by 2020 and 2 million by 2025.

Aumentado promised central government would be responsible for improving of the causeway that links Panglao Island with Bohol – as well as improving drainage and sewerage systems – and ensuring there was sufficient water and power development to support the new airport project.

As the then provincial head of the political party Lakas-Kampi, he enjoyed the backing of then President Arroyo for his dream to create new jobs and investment in the province.

Funding

The initial cost of the project was set at PhP 4.2 billion (USD 97.6 million) to be sourced from PhP 3 billion (USD 69.7 million) in corporate funds provided by the MIAA and PhP 1.2 billion (USD 27.9 million) from the DOTC. The latter amount has already reportedly been used to buy the required land from local owners who are said to have received between 40 and 70 pesos (less than two dollars) per square meter.

That was not enough according to many people in the barangays concerned who were forced to give up their land.

By last year and with elections looming, people were starting to say the original projections were too low and the cost of development would be more likely to be PhP 7 billion (USD 163 million). Changes in the design, the increased cost of supplies and the need to buy additional 14 hectares of land are reported to be behind the substantial increase in projected costs, according to one media report published in December last year. Yet the additional cost of the extra small piece of land should have had very minimal impact in the overall price increase, since the total size of the land initially purchased for less than PhP 500 million (USD 12 million) now stands at around 216 hectares.

No more funds

With the election of Governor Edgar Chatto to office in July 2011, the PhP 4.2 billion of project funding earmarked was said to be no longer available and had reportedly been assigned elsewhere by the MIAA. Whether it was found to be already spent or has instead been earmarked for another project is not currently clear.

At a meeting of the so-called Panglao Airport Development Project Task Force at the Governor’s mansion in August 2010, Mario Relampagos of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) who is also a relative of Rep. Rene Relampagos of the first district of Bohol, told colleagues that as far as the DBM was concerned there were no longer any funds left to pay for it.

The meeting of officials and politicians reportedly heard that some funds at least had already been spent: These included PhP 453 million (USD 10.53 million) paid for the land; PhP 203 million (USD 4.72 million) for the detailed engineering report – and around PhP 100 million (USD 2.32 million) for the widening of the two causeway connections linking the island to Bohol.

It is not currently clear if the projected total new cost of the project will thus be PhP 7 billion less the already expended PhP 756 million. And despite the fact that PhP 756 million was supposedly confirmed spent by the task force back in August, a national media report four months later on December 26, quoted Rolando G Tungpalan, deputy general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as saying that while Panglao remained the best possible location, “no final decision had been taken.”

The decision to include the funding of the new airport as part of the PPP planning was forced on the new government which found the coffers empty. But what is still not clear is why the cost has increased so much in three years.

Only when the public call to bid is released along with the detailed plans in August might people find out what the differences are between the airport planned during the presidency of Arroyo and that under the new PPP.

Prior to his sudden resignation late last month, Secretary Jose de Jesus of DOTC, who attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Transportation convention held at the Bohol Beach Club in April, suggested that so far, 45 private investors have shown interest in engaging on the project.

Joining him in an inspection of the site were Governor Chatto, Rep. Relampagos and consultants from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has reportedly been asked to help “refine the packaging of the proposed airport” to suit the PPP plans.

Resistance

Professor Ernesto M. Pernia, Economics Professor at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City has been a long standing critic of the Panglao Airport plan.

The former lead economist of the Asian Development Bank has suggested that the Panglao’s attraction as a tourist “jewel” will be spoilt by the development.

He has asked whether there is a need for another international airport in addition to the eight existing ones.

Pernia was among a group of concerned individuals including several UP professors which came together to publish a statement in a local newspaper expressing grave concern over the project and seeking a reconsideration.

In their statement, the complainants presented a picture comparing the Philippines, which has less land mass but a high poverty incidence to other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia which have fewer international airports and larger land areas and still enjoy millions of overseas visitors.

“One has to wonder how a country can countenance the proliferation of international airports that are mostly underutilized while more basic infrastructure and social services remain inadequate and one of three Filipinos live in absolute poverty. An additional airport in any province in the country would be superfluous, a misallocation of resources, and sheer waste of scarce investible funds in a poor, capital-starved country,” the statement said.

Yet to be fair, neither Indonesia nor Malaysia have the kind of transport problems associated with an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands.

Aumentado’s defense

And in response, then Governor Aumentado has countered by saying Panglao is bigger than the nearby island of Mactan which serves the island of Cebu and which has spurred extensive development in the area.

He adds that the Panglao Airport project is also endorsed and supported by the people of Cebu led by Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Aumentado also cited findings of a reported NEDA study which suggests it would almost as much to upgrade the current airport in Tagbilaran City.

The project has undergone the process of securing the Environmental Impact Study before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), he said. Once completed, the project will be supervised and operated by the MIAA authorities.

Aside from the issue of whether the project will finally go ahead – which it most probably will– the most pressing question is whether it will be done in the most efficient way that is also beneficial to the community in both economic and environmental measures. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project

(Ric Obedencio is a journalist based in Tagbilaran City and is a member of the NUJP local chapter in Bohol.)