Capitol ready to swap Sta. Fe lots

The Capitol will push through with the swapping of lots in Sta. Fe town, Bantayan Island, as part of its plans to build and operate an airport there.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said yesterday they were settling all the property issues of a 33-hectare lot that was already identified as a feasible airstrip but had ownership problems.

Garcia is scheduled to go to Sta. Fe town on April 14 to sign the deed of exchange with 15 property owners occupying lots in a 33-hectare lot.

However, Garcia said the Capitol had yet to change the name of the property the Capitol earlier bought but wasn’t feasible for an airstrip before it could swap the properties.

“Atong gikubkob karon og nabalhin ba sa name sa province ang primirong mga lote nga napalit nato. Pagkabalhin niini, duna nay nangamatay pud. Duna tay bayranan sa capital gains, estate tax, transfer tax. Gipahaluna na ni tanan (We dug it up and changed the name of first lot to the province. However, after the name change, there were still taxes to be paid because some of the owners of the purchased lots had already died. These include the capital gains, estate tax and transfer tax. We are preparing these),” she said.

“Lot A will be changed with the province’s name. We can then swap Lot A with the privately-owned Lot B. We cannot swap something that is not in our name,” she said.

Meanwhile, she is also waiting for the go signal from the Civil Aviation Authority in the Philippines (CAAP) on pushing for the airport project in Bantayan and the other one in Camotes Island.

Garcia said that they had already submitted their proposal to CAAP.

“It is now being reviewed by the national office. After which, they will be giving us clearance to proceed with our plan,” she said.

In October last year, Garcia wrote the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) board to inform them of her administration’s airport plans.

Both islands in the north of Cebu are being promoted as tourist destinations.

Moves to establish feeder airports in Bantayan and Camotes islands were first undertaken during the term of former governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña in the late 1980s.

Garcia said they were hoping to start building the Camotes Island airport on the first quarter of 2012./Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus