LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Following suggestions and proposals that this city’s Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) needs to be transferred, purportedly for economic reasons, Airport general manager Nigel Paul Villarete said he is open to the idea, but stressed that said transfer needs to be thoroughly studied first.
In a recent forum here, Villarete urged the public to keep an open mind on the proposal to transfer the airport from its present location in Mactan, this city, to Cordova, a neighboring town.
“The transfer of the airport to Cordova is a welcome development but it can’t be easily done because aside from feasibility studies it needs a huge amount of money to effect,” he said.
Villarete said the MCIA Authority is also open to have the proposed move submitted to the private sector to be studied as this will save them that expense.
To recall, Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy was the one who proposed the transfer of the airport to his town, citing that its present site does not provide enough space for the airport’s modernization.
Sitoy offered to host the airport in some 1,100 hectares of foreshore land that he is proposing to reclaim in Cordova.
He described the current 300-hectare space occupied by the airport in Mactan island as “grossly inadequate while traffic is a continuing problem despite the presence of the two bridges.”
The Cordova mayor also alleges that the airport is “unwanted” in its current host, citing as a reason the a plan by the city to file a P1.2-billion damage suit against the MCIA Authority for unpaid taxes.
Source: http://www.mb.com.ph
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