Negros Occ to buy plane for surveys, cloud-seeding

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the provincial government is buying a Cessna 206 light plane for aerial surveys and cloud-seeding operations.

Currently, the Capitol is hiring a privately-owned plane for cloud-seeding operations, and usually requests for planes from the Philippine Air Force for aerial surveys and rescue operations during natural calamities.

It was Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez Jr. who raised the proposal to buy a Cessna 206 plane. The vice governor, who is a licensed pilot, said the Provincial Board had concurred with the plan.

Alvarez’s proposal was to buy a second-hand six-seater Cessna 206 light plane worth P15 million. A brand new Cessna 206 plane costs P20 million, he said.

PB Member Patrick Escalante, chairman of the PB finance committee, the other day said there was a fund set aside for the Cessna plane purchase. He said that, based on the P80-million savings from the Capitol’s calamity fund last year, P15 million was proposed by Vicfran Defante, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Program, to buy the plane.

Marañon said he was amenable to the proposal, which is “good as approved” although they will still look for a second-hand Cessna 206 plane worth only between P12 million and P15 million. He said there is one the Philippine government is selling, which is second-hand but has newly bought engines.

The governor said the purchase of this plane is “no longer a luxury but a necessity in modernizing the provincial government’s services to its people.” He said if the provincial government has its own plane, the monitoring of the province’s forests against encroachment and illegal logging will be efficient.

The North Negros Natural Park has been gradually encroached upon, and this situation could have been monitored efficiently by regular aerial surveys, said the governor.

Marañon said the Capitol could buy a plane in three months’ time, considering the many processes and bidding procedures that will have to be conducted.

According to Wikipedia, Cessna 206 belongs to a family of single engine, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear used in commercial air service and also for personal use.

Cessna’s combination of a powerful engine, rugged construction and a large cabin has made these aircraft popular bush planes. (FREEMAN)