Stalled focus on the Ubay runway could now resume on the discussion table, after the New Bohol Airport project in Panglao hurdled the negotiation stage.
Bohol 2nd District Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado already opened talks on the proposed expansion of the existing one-kilometer runway in Ubay with Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Director General William Hotchkiss III.
According to Aumentado, CAAP assured to allocate funds for the Ubay Airport development in 2016.
CAAP sent a technical team here to inspect the Ubay runway to study the proposal on the improvement of the Ubay Airport.
The study will cover the actual cost to be incurred in improving the Ubay runway and the extent of its operation.
Aumentado cited the advantage of Ubay, having a flat terrain, for an airport as it can accommodate even a two-kilometer runway that can be extended to three kilometers.
It had been envisioned to accommodate aviation training flights to decongest the traffic at the Mactan International Airport.
Smaller chartered planes can land at Ubay runway and if it pushes through, Anda will benefit from the project, considering its proximity.
Travel from Ubay runway to Anda only takes 45 minutes compared to the travel from Tagbilaran Airport that will take about two hours.
This is aside from the limited space at the Tagbilaran Airport that is under the one-plane policy of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Anda has been groomed as another destination for white beach vacation and island hopping activities, next to Panglao.
The development of Ubay airport had been espoused by the three Bohol representatives to Congress sometime in 2010—led by the late Erico Aumentado, Rep. Rene Relampagos and Rep. Arthur Yap.
For his part, Gov. Edgar Chatto said Bohol needed to get the national government attention to one airport project for the province at a time and that the New Bohol Airport in Panglao had to be prioritized.
Talking about Ubay airport can resume now that the contractor of the New Bohol Airport project already started the preparation for the actual construction and the national government—through the Department of Tranportation and Communications (DOTC)—is fully into it.
In the past, the province needed to focus then on the New Bohol Airport that was envisioned then more as an international airport and later shifted to a modern eco-airport package (Angeline Valencia)