Caticlan controversy

Business has not been so good even during the summer months for many hotels, resorts, and lodging houses in Boracay ever since local carriers PAL Express and Cebu Pacific stopped their Manila-Caticlan flights and returned to the Kalibo airport for their Boracay-bound passengers.

Caticlan is the nearest jump-off point to Boracay Island. Kalibo airport, which is a bigger facility, is about two-hour land trip away from Caticlan.

It will be recalled that the Civil Aviation Authority imposed landing weight limitations on the Caticlan airport and designated the Caticlan facility as a one-way airport, which means take-off should be towards the sea, and landing in the opposite direction.

This essentially shortens the portion of the airport runway that could be used despite its actual length, making it dangerous for big planes such as those used by PAL Express and CEB. These changes were made to avoid incidents similar to the one involving Zest Air when its plane overshot the runway in June of last year.

I’ve talked to a number of resort and hotel owners and they’ve been complaining about the adverse effect on their businesses that the closure of the Caticlan airport to bigger planes had.

Their concern, as well as that of the government, as to the continuing negative effect on local tourism of the restrictions imposed on the Caticlan airport is understandable.

A solution should be found immediately but not at the expense of short-cutting the process and in the end endanger the island of Boracay.

Concerned environmental, transport, and tourism groups in Aklan are said to be planning a protest rally to oppose the ground breaking ceremony this Tuesday of the upgrading of the Caticlan airport.

The multi-sectoral groups appealed for a postponement of the ceremonies expected to be attended by President Arroyo after learning that the Caticlan International Airport Development Corp. (CIADC) will level the hill beside the airport even without the necessary environmental clearance certificates (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

This P2.5 million build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer scheme project is a state of the nation announcement and priority project of President Arroyo and because of this, the CIADC is said to be fast tracking the controversial project despite opposition from several sectors of the province including its governor. 

Members of the Boracay Foundation Inc. (BFI) led by its chairman Henry Chusuey and other stakeholders in Boracay have said that they are supporting limited development for the present domestic airport but prefer that the international airport remain in Kalibo. They also oppose the planned leveling of the Caticlan hill at the end of the runway because of the negative environmental impact as warned by protesting environmental groups led by Earthsavers Movement.

Aklan Rep. Florencio Miraflores, an ally of the President, is reportedly supporting the project, but Governor Carlito Marquez is against it after learning that the project proponent is reportedly using the old ECC of the existing airport.

Marquez has welcomed the improvement of the Caticlan airport, but expressed concern about what he said was the lack of consultations on its being converted into an international airport facility.

He told reporters that while he is not against the upgrading of the Caticlan airport which is just a 10-minute boat ride to Boracay, he said it should remain as a domestic airport just like what the Department of Transportation and Communications told provincial officials last August.

The governor revealed that the environment compliance certificate (ECC) was recycled one and was the basis of the recent approval of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) to upgrade the airport.

He said that the CIADC did not comply with the three major components of the July 2006 issued ECC – which include proper consultation with provincial officials, formation of a multi-partite monitor team, and the social responsibilities with stakeholders.

Earthsavers Movement learned that the present Caticlan Airport is in a particularly vulnerable site. It is adjacent to a major fault and is underlain by loose non-consolidated sediments.

The project, they claimed, will also violate the International Air Travel Authority (IATA) ban for traffic safety versus locating international airports within 60 nautical miles.

A study conducted by Dr. Ric Javelosa, a morphologist of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, has warned that leveling the hill will make the beaches of Boracay disappear. He explained that people in the environmental community consider the hill in Caticlan to be the main driver and generator that allows the gentle monsoon breezes to create such fine and polished sand that Boracay is known for. Removing it will spell disaster for Boracay and its four-kilometer long white beach.

Unwelcome Xmas message

Sometime last Dec. last year, while people were exchanging Christmas greetings of peace and goodwill, telecom giant PLDT received a rather unwelcome Yuletide message. It got word that broadcasting company ABS-CBN would effectively double the ad rates that PLDT would have to pay starting Jan. 1, 2010. Moreover, those would rates would go up further when the new 2010 rates are implemented in February.

ABS-CBN junking the volume discount that it routinely gives large advertisers like PLDT and required the telecom firm to pay according to “standard rates” for 2009.

This is the second time in recent years that ABS-CBN has gotten into a tussle with a major advertiser. A few years back, one of the country’s biggest advertisers reportedly pulled out of Channel 2 when after tough negotiations, it refused to go along with a rate increase that ABS CBN wanted to impose.

Sources revealed that this time around, though, there were no negotiations and that it appears that only PLDT and its subsidiaries and affiliates are the target. And the rate hike is being done immediately without the benefit of the 90-day grace period required by KBP rules.

So, why this move by ABS-CBN against the PLDT Group, which now owns ABC Channel 5? Just asking.

CyberPress awards

Our congratulations to the winners of the 2nd CyberPress ICT Choice Awards given out recently by the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress).

The first Lifetime Achievement Award which is aimed at honoring personalities who contributed immensely to the development of the local IT industry went to Dr. William “Bill” Torres, who is considered the “Father of Philippine Internet.”

As cofounder and former CEO of Mozcom, the country’s first commercial ISP, Torres spearheaded the negotiations with the US government in the 1990s to bring Internet to the Philippines. He also holds the distinction as the first Filipino to acquire a PhD degree in computer science in the US.

Voted as IT Story of the Year was “Smartmatic-TIM undertakes 2010 election automation project,” while the IT Product of the Year award went to Windows 7, Microsoft’s newest operating system.

Named IT Startup of the Year was Inovent Inc., a new Filipino tech company that unveiled this year a prototype of an LCD interactive television (iTV) set, claiming to be the first of its kind to be produced in the Philippines while chosen as IT Executive of the Year is Ricky Banaag who has been leading Intel Microelectronics Philippines for 12 years now.

Picked as IT Company of the Year was Acer Philippines, which exceeded expectations in 2009 by becoming the top PC vendor in the country.

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