ORMOC CITY-Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade personally inspected the ongoing repair of the airport of this city on Thursday (May 9) saying the national government is committed to finish the project and make the facility operational.
The airport of this city sustained major damages when it was hit by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013 and by a major earthquake in 2017.
While its passenger terminal building, repaired at a cost of P34 million, is already completed, improvements on its other facilities like asphalt overlay and strip grade correction project and runway widening are still ongoing.
The Department of Transportations has allocated P137 million for these improvements which are expected to be finished by 2020.
At present, the Ormoc airport, located in Barangay Airport, is not operational from commercial airlines except of a Mactan-based flying school which uses it for training of its students.
“(The national government) is very, very committed to finish this project. We’ll ensure that there will be commercial flights here,” Tugade said in a brief interview.
He was joined by Undersecretary for Finance Garry de Guzman, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Director General Jim Sydiongco, and CAAP Deputy Director General for Administration Ricardo Banayat during his inspection of the facility.
In 2016, Cebu Pacific opened its Cebu-Ormoc flight but cancelled it in 2018 due to low number of passengers.
Mayor Richard Gomez said he is looking forward in making the Ormoc Airport fully operational to commercial flights as people of the city would no longer travel to Tacloban City where the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, the region’s premier airport, is located.
He also said that the airport’s business operation will be a big boost on his campaign to attract more investors to the city.
(JOEY A. GABIETA, ROEL T. AMAZONA)
