THE ongoing construction of the airfield in Pagasa Island should be completed by the end of next month, Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said on Sunday, adding the project will allow the landing of aircraft in Kalayaan municipality’s biggest island any time of the day.
“What we are currently improving right now is the airport so that we could land there any time of the day or even any day because before, our aircraft could not land there if it was raining,” the defense chief said in an interview over radio station DZBB.
Lorenzana said completion is being rushed but spillover of work could go until August.
“If it is completed, we could already go there daily.”
While Lorenzana did not name the “airport,” it could be the Rancudo AirField, which the military had earlier eyed to improve so that it could land aircraft and military personnel on the island.
The repair of the airfield was one of the two major projects in Pagasa under the Duterte administration. The other one, the construction of a beaching ramp, had been completed last year.
Lorenzana said the airport project was just among rehabilitation works eyed in the seat of the Kalayaan municipality following the construction of a fishermen’s shelter.
The Philippine Coast Guard reported last week that Filipino fishermen have kept increasing their presence in the waters of the Kalayaan Island Group, which is part of the province of Palawan.
“So (our projects are) ongoing there,” Lorenzana said, adding the other islands may be improved next.
The defense secretary said that China may be adding new buildings in the Subi Reef. There were reports that Beijing is busy in its construction activities. Lorenzana said this was allowed under the agreement that the country signed with China.
“That’s one of the agreements between the two countries; that we can improve ‘in your occupied’ features as long as you do not occupy new features,” he said.
Lorenzana said the Chinese have been in Subi Reef for many years, which they later made into a man-made island and fortified into a military base.
China occupied Subi Reef in the middle part of 1990s by sending fishermen under the guise of seeking shelter from bad weather. The Chinese have not left the feature since and instead permanently occupied it before transforming it into a military base.