ZAMBOANGA CITY—The city government here is upbeat that the national government has approved the transfer of its airport to a location east of the city to allow more development to take place rather than confine it to a constricted downtown-area development.
City Planning Chief Rodolfo P. Sicat told reporters here about the optimism of the city government on the visit this week of a team from the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to conduct the geotechnical study of the planned site for a new airport.
Sicat divulged this at the sidelines of the launch on Monday of the Zamboanga-Sandakan, Malaysia air connectivity.
He said the study would complete the latest among several national government studies on transferring the airport to the Barangay Mercedes and Barangay Talavar area, 17 kilometers east of this city.
The planned airport was first attempted for inclusion in the Medium Term Public Investment Development Plan of the then-Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in the last year of Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, which did not make it to the list of projects for funding.
The DOTr funded the sixth study supposed to be finished by November last year, Sicat said. Although the project was left unfinished, “by the mere fact the DOTr funded it up to its completion, we hope this feasibility study would proceed to its next level.”
“Otherwise, why was it funded if it would not proceed?” he said.
The existing airport sprawls in an area covering 121 hectares of the airport, and another area still being used for a 12-hole golf course. A briefer by the Department of Tourism said the airport is currently among the top-10 busiest airports in the country and, last year, it handled 8,870 aircraft movements and recorded 1 million passengers and 13 million units of cargo.
The airport has flights to Manila, Cebu and Davao, and the booming missionary route to Tawi-Tawi, the country’s southern backdoor.
Sicat said the DOTC then projected the Zamboanga airport to receive as many as 1 million passengers by 2020, a level that peaked its capacity for its existing infrastructure. He added the city government could neither request the needed upgrading or improvement, saying the proximity of the airport to the downtown area, at 2 kilometers, “has restricted the development of the urban area of the city.”
He said the urban expansion was being forced to take a linear and littoral direction instead of a much broader and multiple directions, which would allow the city government to relocate the city hall and build a bigger and new urban area with wide streets.
He added the SM and Robinson’s chains of shopping malls already indicated interest at relocating at the prospect of a vacated airport. “Other businesses and enterprises are all looking forward to expand or relocate to that area.”
Despite the boom in construction and entry of new shopping malls, the urban area remained constricted at six hectares.
In the 1994 price index, the relocation of a new airport would have cost only P20 billion.
However, the current cost of between P40 billion and P60 billion would still be
manageable, he added.
He said the leveled area would not be expensive and would take only a filling up of the place.
In a related development, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade ordered the immediate improvement of the Zamboanga International Airport after seeing first hand the air hub’s “sorry state.”
Expressing his “great dismay” over the airport’s facilities, Tugade listed those that need immediate attention as the small-baggage carousel, the lack of appropriate gang chairs and passenger seats at boarding areas and the multiple potholes on the two runways.
“I find it hard to accept that this is the airport that the people of Zamboanga are using,” he said. “It needs further attention.”
He ordered the immediate procurement of gang chairs to ensure passengers will be provided with comfortable seats, as well as a new-baggage carousel to facilitate efficient baggage handling.
Tugade said he would closely coordinate with the National Housing Authority for the relocation of informal settlers affected by the Zamboanga seige.
The transport chief also ordered the immediate removal of the containers of Allison Cargo from the airport, as it “adversely” affected airport security.
The P160-million budget for the asphalt overlay has been secured, and construction has been scheduled pending the award of the deal.
But Tugade gave an ultimatum to airport officials, and instructed them to start the asphalt overlay of the entire runway, as well as the repair of potholes “today,” to ensure the safety of the aircrafts and their passengers during landing and takeoff.
Sealing of cracks will commence immediately.
Asphalt overlay of the whole runway would take several months, as work can only be done at night till early morning, when there are no more incoming or outgoing flights.
“When I return, and these have not been fixed, I will make sure that someone will pay for it,” Tugade said.