House mandates study on Camotes airport rehabilitation

THE airstrip in Camotes Island in San Francisco town would be rehabilitated and modernized to accommodate commercial flights that would bring in more tourists.

Rep. Ramon “Red” Durano VI of Cebu’s fifth district said Congress directed the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to conduct a feasibility study and come up with a detailed engineering plan of the airport rehabilitation.
“The amount necessary to carry out provisions of this Act shall be charged to the appropriations of the Department of Transportation and Communication under the General Appropriations Act,” said Durano’s House Bill 2668.

Camotes Island consists of the municipalities of Pilar, San Francisco, Poro and Tudela that have been tagged by the Department of Tourist (DOT) as the “new tourist destinations in the Visayas” because of white sand beaches at par with those found in Dos Palmas in Palawan and in Boracay.
The island also has one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the Visayas and is home to abundant marine resources.

“(However), due to long isolation and slow development of its infrastructure, the economies of the four towns in Camotes also grow slowly, resulting to poverty and migration of its people to mainland Cebu and Leyte,” said Durano’s explanatory note, a copy of which was attached to the bill.

Its airstrip which the Cebu provincial government established in the late 1980s to attract investments was also barely used because it was left unattended for a long time.

The airstrip is only used by flying schools. It needs a new runway and terminal building to replace a shed which is now used as terminal building.

Wanting to spur the island’s tourism and economic activities, Durano introduced to Congress House Bill 2668 which sought the rehabilitation and the modernization of the San Francisco airstrip “in order to be capable of handling big aircraft.”

“Tourism in the island is beginning to pick up. We want the island to be ready for the influx of tourism,” Durano said in an interview.

He said his bill approved by the transportation committee of Congress in 2010 is now pending with the appropriations committee to determine how much is needed based on the DOTC and DPWH feasibility study.

Also, he wanted the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) to assume the management of the airstrip until such time that an independent management body is created by DOTC, the Cebu provincial government and the Camotes Island Local Government Units, for the purpose.

Durano said in his explanatory note that the Camotes airstrip rehabilitation project is in accordance with the national government’s thrust to spread development to island communities.

“Being archipelagic, investment in public works, specifically in the establishment and construction of transport facilities in the island towns in our country would greatly spur development of economies and other livelihood opportunities to our people,” said Durano’s explanatory note.