Execs, traders slam 'slow rehab' of Maguindanao Airport

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Officials urged Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to look into the  "slow rehabilitation" of the Maguindanao Airport, hurting the  local economy.

Hadji Emil Sadain, who is the regional public works secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman have also agreed to initiate an extensive evaluation of the airport repair works and report their findings to the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications and to Malacañang.

The consensus was reached by the three officials during Monday’s meeting in Cotabato City of the ARMM’s Regional Economic Development Planning Board, where Mangudadatu is a voting member.

Mangudadatu said he called  the contractor of the airport’s rehabilitation, Vic Lao, to request to expedite the project to enable airline companies to fully resume with their operations.

Sources from the ARMM's regional government said the repair works, which started second week of December 2013, was supposed to be completed by early February 2014.

The contractor of the project has not implemented even 50 percent of the work program for the airport’s rehabilitation, according to the sources.

The frequency of the daily Cotabato-Manila and Manila-Cotabato flights have been reduced by more than half since late last year due to the repair works.

Residents of Cotabato City, Maguindanao, and nearby towns in the first district of North Cotabato benefit from the airport’s operation.

Participants to an earlier multi-sectoral emergency forum on the problem, which the ARMM’s Regional Board of Investments facilitated, said there was no prior public consultation on the impact of the airport’s renovation.

Investors, visiting foreigners, personnel of local and foreign donor agencies involved in various projects in Central Mindanao have also been complaining of difficulty in organizing important activities in the region due to the problem.

Representatives from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) who attended the forum said normal flight schedules could resume, provided that repairs works would be constructed from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily.

Hataman said while airport control and management have not been devolved by the national government to the ARMM, he could monitor the airport rehabilitation and report it to the DOTC.

Mangudadatu and Hataman have agreed to bring the issue to Abaya’s attention.

Members of the business communities in Cotabato City and Maguindanao have been complaining of the “adverse impact” of the problem to Central Mindanao’s economy.

Pete Marquez, a senior member of a business club in Cotabato City, said some merchants are complaining of big expenditures for air freight and handling of shipments of merchandise from Metro Manila due to the drastic reduction of the flights from Manila to Maguindanao.

Large shipments of goods from Metro Manila  are presently facilitated via the airports in the cities of Davao and Gen. Santos, which are quite far from Cotabato City and Maguindanao. - John Unson