Solon warns of more delay in Panglao airport project

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines  — The implementation of the New Bohol Airport project in Panglao might hit snag further if the municipal government would insist on including the 65-hectare lot that the previous administration wanted to acquire via barter arrangement, according to Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd dist., Bohol).

The provincial government consolidated more or less 65 hectares for the original design of the airport during the three-year term of then governor David Tirol and the six-year stint as governor of Rene Relampagos.

However, the resort owners complained of possible hazards once the airport operates with its runway facing the Alona Beach. Realizing the hazards, the committee in charge of the project and the consultants have recommended for the realignment of the runway's direction by 32 degrees.

The new design has the runway already facing barangay Danao, but the 65-hectare property consolidated by the past administrations of Tirol and Relampagos was eventually outside of the project design.

The local task force on land acquisition, headed by lawyers Jose Torralba and Handel Lagunay offered to swap the 65-hectare area with the 43-45 hectare lot in Danao affected by the new design. The affected lot owners have agreed on the barter arrangement during the last round of negotiation in the past administration.

Aumentado however warned the Danao municipal government and the provincial government from taking the 65-hectare property as potential site for public enterprise and resolving the 43-45-hectare affected land through expropriation.

He also warned that the lot owners of the 43-45 hectares of land maybe inclined to junk the expropriation price of P60 per square meter, of which they would only get P40 per square meter since the P20 per square meter will go to the notarial fees, documentation, capital gain tax, and other fees.

Moreover, the expropriation which involves judicial process would usually take long and it will most likely delay the implementation of the project by three more years, Aumentado said.

Some hitches have delayed the signing of the barter agreement by former secretaries of the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Department of Tourism-Leandro Mendoza and Ace Durano, respectively.

Aumentado said the money for land acquisition for the project will come from the DOTC and the DOT, but the process got caught in the take-over of a new administration, so the barter agreement now needs to be followed up. (FREEMAN)