Gov’t to bid Panglao airport this month

BIDDING for Panglao airport phase one finally opens this month, reports transportation Undersecretary and former city Mayor Jose Torralba in a radio interview.

Torralba, who is manning the airport project management office here said the multi-sectoral consultative meeting held last Tuesday at the Bohol Beach Club was the last procedural requirement needed to seal the fate of the airport’s initial construction phase.

The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Investment Coordinating Committee initially nodded to the project even after consultants proposed drastic changes leading to major project funding realignments.

With the changes, the entire project bloated to nearly double its initial cost, needing the NEDA ICC nod anew to use the early appropriations of P4.2B to fund the initial phase of the airport project.

The project go-signal was on the condition that Bohol provincial government conducts another multisectoral consultation to address ecological or environmental issues, Usec Torralba explained..

Moreover, the preconditions also include that Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) conducts value engineering of the project and that budget cover be issued to the Department of Transportation and Communications by the Department of Budget and Management.

The recent multi-sectoral meeting in Panglao churned out the resolutions, which would engage the NEDA to finally green-light phase one of the project.

Phase one of the project comprises the construction of the airport’s 2.5 kilometer runway and its lighting facilities.

This phase also uses up the funds NEDA has earlier earmarked for the entire project, explains Gov. Erico Aumentado, weeks back.

From the initial P4.27 billion, the total total project now costs P7.54 billion.

The project cost blew up due to increase of item prices and quantity, design modification and additional acquisition of 14.5 hectares of land.

The Panglao airport project aims to develop a new airport facility in Panglao Island, Bohol to comply with domestic and international standards for operational safety and efficiency.

It also envisions to open up the entire region (Region VII) to more economic activities and to enhance the tourism potential of Bohol province. (PIA)

Runway, navigation facility first, airport hub on B-O-T

NOTHING gets on the way with Bohol development, local officials have tersely stressed.

Behind the building belief that the Panglao Bohol International Airport (PBIA) Project is now doomed to crash before it could even take off, local officials and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo again whipped a wise formula to keep the P7.6 billion project taxiing.

This week, the National Economic Development Authority is set to flick on the green light to rev on the use of the P4.2B it initially okayed for the 2.5 kilometer PBIA airport runway, control tower and lighting and navigation facilities, relayed Governor Erico Aumentado during his weekly radio program.

With the airport facility and its allied infrastructure now nearly doubling from its initial P4.2B feasibility study cost, PGMA nodded to the construction of the 2.5 kilometer runway and the installation of the lighting and navigation facilities, in a meeting with Bohol officials and funding agencies last week.

The president also directed Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General manager Alfonso Cusi to immediately go for the runway, control tower and navigation facilities construction, which can be funded by the ready P4.2B, the same being well within the budget.

At the weekly Governor’s Reports, Aumentado told Boholanos Friday that National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Augusto Santos has already received the MIAA letter last October 7, upon orders of the president, asking them to immediately green light the project using the P4.2B which NEDA has approved earlier.

He also reported that NEDA, through Sec. Santos is set to flick the switch for the bidding anytime within the week.

Over this, the governor added that the MIAA has already studied the terms of reference on the bidding of the runway, tower, lighting and airport navigational facilities.

With this, the bidding of the project is set to begin this week and the projects engineering works to be awarded as soon before the real groundbreaking this December, the governor assured.

The MIAA initially vowed P3.2 billion while the Department pf Transportation and Communication pushed across the table P1 billion for the P4.2 billion facility set to be constructed in the southwestern part of Panglao town.

As for the remaining structures that could not be funded anymore, Aumentado, during the meeting with the President at the Bahay Pangarap presented his formula.

The last term governor proposed that the terminal building of the facility be put on a build-operate-transfer scheme, where he mentioned interested private contractors willing to put up the funds.

With the win-win formula, Aumentado and President Arroyo has again showed how skillful negotiations can push for projects which can be economically beneficial to the Visayas super-region. (PIA)

Crucial meeting on Panglao Airport with GMA set Oct. 6

Crucial meeting on the the Panglao Bohol International Airport, with Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang on Oct. 6, will reveal the fate of the multi-billion airport.

Gov. Erico Aumentado told the President that if the airport project would be derailed, then, it “could be the biggest issue in Bohol against the administration candidates.”

The governor who is a known political leader of the President has oftentimes relayed Ms. Arroyo’s commitment to complete the project within her term.

However, latest developments revealed that due to the delayed implementation of the project, the cost overrun of the project would cost 76%, increasing the project cost to P7.5 billion as against the outlay of P4.2 billion previously approved by the National Economic Development Authority-ICC technical board.

The meeting is expected to address the problems on the airport project, particularly on the funding requirement.

The new cost estimate came out after the Philippine Japan Airports Consultants (Phil-JAC) completed its detailed engineering works for the airport project recently.

Aumentado has a ready second option though – construct the terminal building and allied facilities under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

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Guv goes for 3-lanes on airport highways

ARMED with the solomonic formula Governor Erico Aumentado is fast becoming noted of, Bohol local officials here think the opposition forming to delay the road widening project for Panglao Airport access would soon be convinced to lie low.

The government road-widening project in preparation for the Panglao air facility whipped a potential headache recently for local officials who are pushing for the realization of the dream air facility.

Government public works authorities have proposed a four-lanes in lieu of the present two lanes to keep future traffic from potential bottlenecks.

Such a move however would require an additional road space for the main road and its shoulders, and may cause dislocation among private residents who have developed areas by the roadsides.

Residents of Dauis and Panglao towns however believe they would end up losing precious front yards or worse, their houses and developments when the proposed 4-lane road starts.

Preempting any of this scenario, residents have started organizing to lobby for a 2-lane instead of a 4 lane road project.

Feeling for residents’ plight too, Gov, Aumentado shared Friday that he has presented his compromise formula to the DPWH and the government agency has vowed to study his proposal.

The governor explained that he has presented to DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane and Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan his proposal.

The Aumentado proposal is for the government to adopt a Subic-Clark Expressway-like highway which totals 9.1 meters of road development.

He said the design would be 6.1 meters of main roads for three lanes and 1.6 meters of road shoulders on both sides.

Interacting with the local media during the weekly Governor’s Reports, Aumentado said Provincial Engineers Edwin Vallejos is to meet the government units of Dauis and Panglao to settle the RROW acquisition anytime soon.

Dauis and Pangalo would secure the RROW acquisition as it was earlier agreed, he added. (rachiu/PIA)

Panglao airport committee wants runway bidding soonest

The Panglao International Airport Development Project (PIADP) has been pushed for the runway bidding, by the Inter-Agency Committee. This is a move that would finally make visible the development of the dream airport.

In its development timetable provided by the PIADP secretariat, the preparation of the project’s detailed engineering works would be on from February to July. This was bared by Governor Erico Aumentado in his Governor’s Report.

The runway and its allied facilities would cover some 2.5 kilometers and would be designed in such a way that it can be upgradeable to accommodate the biggest plane of the Airbus fleet. Aumentado says that the runway would soon be extended to 3.8 kilometers but the initial bidding would yet cover the construction of 2.5 kilometer strip.

Aumentado insisted that the airport should be operational by December 2010, even if it would still be operating on temporary terminal hub, a tent city as he proposed. (PIA)

http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&fi=p090509.htm&no=49

P4.7B Panglao airport dev’t still on schedule

IF you think the unusual calm after the heated debates regarding the airport in Panglao is an indication of another government flop, think again.

The lull may be because, as the timetable shows, this time of year, or precisely between February to July, the project’s detailed engineering works would be prepared by project consultants.

And Provincial Legal Officer Handel Lagunay added, “come August to September, bidding for the constructions’ civil works would be posted, bid andf awarded to hit the actual work schedules on the first week of October.”

The Philippine Japan Airports Consultants (Phil-JAC) are expected to complete the detailed engineering works for the P4.7 B Panglao Bohol International Airport Project (PBIAP) in July, Lagunay said.

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) funding the project has also approved the negotiated contract amount of P290,226,140 for the specified work, he pressed.

According to him who heads the Capitol liaison office for the multi billion project, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has incorporated Panglao Airport in her grand plan to package Central Visayas as the country’s tourism super region and it would be completed in time when the president ends her term.

Earlier too, Governor Erico Aumentado has proposed P2M master-planning of the island to develop the airport surroundings in the context of an “airport city.”

Bohol local officials claim that a rationalized planning for Panglao deters the uncontrollable building of any vertical infrastructure once the project would be constructed.

The MIAA now funds the Aumentado proposal, which is currently taken care by Palafox and Associates.

Local governments and separate government sources have manifested intent in cost-sharing, news reports in Bohol bared.

In a status report presentation to the technical working group working on the airport project however, Lagunay bared some project schedule readjustments to “realistically accommodate subsequent activities.”

The governor has also shared he wants the airport to be Bohol’s gift to the president on her birthday in April in 2010 and before she expires her term.

But with the re-adjustments, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, who attended the last coordination meeting in Bohol has said “it should show substantial accomplishment” before her term ends. (rachiu/PIA)