Aquino dashes hopes of Bohol tourist town for airport

TAGBILARAN CITY—This city’s gain, Panglao’s loss.

This started to take shape after President Aquino told officials of Bohol he wasn’t keen on proceeding with the construction of a new airport in Panglao town, a known tourist destination, since it could be more economical to just expand this city’s existing airport.

What wasn’t discussed during Mr. Aquino’s visit here, however, was whether the decision to put the Panglao airport project in the back burner had anything to do with its being associated with ex-President Macapagal Arroyo.

The former president had presided over a capsule-laying ceremony for the Panglao airport, which was designed to have a 2.5-km runway.

When she laid the time capsule for the project, Arroyo had described it as a magnet for development in Bohol.

Mr. Aquino, however, appeared to disagree with his predecessor. “We want to make sure that the expansion of the Tagbilaran airport is not the better option,” he said on Tuesday at a forum here with officials and civil society leaders of Bohol.

Mr. Aquino said his administration was studying also the possibility of just extending this city’s airport runway instead of building a new airport in Panglao.

“The minimum requirement is that it has to be in service as soon as possible,” said the President.

He said his officials are looking at the Public Private Partnership (PPP) program as a source of funds for the airport expansion.

Mr. Aquino said another possible source of funding for the airport expansion are foreign loans through the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programs.