Caticlan Airport: Clearance found defective; work stopped

[OceanBreezeInn]

THE start of the P2.5-billion expansion of the Caticlan airport in Aklan is not likely in June because of the defective clearance issued to it four years ago, which must be changed and agreed to by all stakeholders, an official said Tuesday.

Caticlan is the nearest airport to the world-famous Boracay resort, but its developer was holding an old Environment Clearance Certificate issued by Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes in 2006, and it was for a simple upgrade and not for a more complex development, Aklan Gov. Carlito Marquez said.

He said many sectors were resisting the transformation of the domestic airport to an international one to accommodate bigger aircraft, and for environmental concerns.

The developer, Caticlan International Airport Development Corp., wants to remove the hill on the airport’s eastern side and to extend the runway to the sea.

The Transport Department is all for it, but the Environment Department’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau objects because the clearance issued the developer does not say anything about leveling any hill or extending any runway.

“The effects of these two environmental issues are precisely why [a clearance] is issued in the first place,” said the bureau’s Ric Javelosa.

He said he had warned new Environment Secretary Horacio Ramos that the airport was not fit for upgrading because of the possibility of tsunamis and the ground-shaking caused by bigger aircraft.

A source said the governor and other stakeholders—including the Boracay Foundation Inc.—were not opposed to the project in its entirety, but they were against leveling the hill and transforming the airport into an international facility.

The airport’s development is a priority project of the Arroyo administration, but although groundbreaking has been held twice, “the project is not likely to start soon and may not even be approved because many sectors are against it, ’’ the source said.

Source: manilastandardtoday