CA rule on reclamation project hailed

MANILA, Philippines - Tourism industry leaders hailed the Court of Appeals for its decision to allow the plan to reclaim a portion of the coastal area of Las Piñas, Parañaque and Bacoor, Cavite.

Earlier, CA affirmed its previous decision dismissing the petition of Sen. Cynthia Villar seeking to stop the reclamation project for the construction of a state of the art airport with direct interconnection to southern and northern provinces in the country.

Robert Lim Joseph, of Tourism Educators and Movers (TEAM) Philippines and director of Air Safety Foundation, praised the CA decision saying this will pave the way for the construction of a modern airport in the coastal area.

Joseph said the new airport project is to decongest the worsening air traffic and land traffic surrounding the current airport.

He said commercial aircraft have to queue at the taxiway of the airport from 30 minutes to one hour just to be able to take off at the sole runway of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while land traffic from all directions to and from the airport is beyond the control of traffic enforcers because of congestion.

Joseph noted that with the favorable CA decision the construction of a new airport at the coastal area will help decongest the worsening air traffic.

“The new airport will have two-parallel-runway with rapid exit taxi way for incoming and outgoing aircraft, and it can accommodate more than the capacity of the existing single runway of NAIA,” he said, adding “that with double runway is the solution to the worsening air traffic.”

“Also the new airport will have an easy link to the coastal road, South Luzon Expressway, Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT),” Joseph said. “We need a new airport that will be functional and commuter friendly for all Filipinos and foreigners as well.”

He added this is a perfect airport for everybody and if we don’t act now our economy will suffer more because of the air and land traffic congestion.