Bicol International Airport to Rise in Albay

MANILA, July 15 (PNA) -- The Bikol Region will eventually get its own international airport that promises to spur and accelerate the region's economic development.

The new Bicol International Airport will be developed on a 140-hectare prime land straddling areas of Daraga and Camalig towns. The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOT) has recently transferred to the Albay Provincial Government P85 million to pay for the property.

The new airport site is deemed safe from the risks and threats entailed when the majestic Mayon Volcano erupts.

DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza recently turned over the P85 million fund for the new airport land purchase to Albay Gov. Joey Salceda. The turnover was witnessed by other DOTC and Albay officials including Daraga Mayor Cicero Triunfante, Camalig Mayor Irwin Baldo, and officials of the five barangays on the actual site of the proposed airport.

Mendoza said he expects work on the Bicol International Airport to start shortly since, aside from the property needed, its other requirements have all been already satisfied. The new airport, he added, should be finished within 30 months or two and a half years.

Salceda, who conceived and worked hard for the new Bicol International Airport project, said the facility will answer the need for a modern airport in Southern Luzon, which should cater to more business activities in the area and conveniently link Bikol to the rest of the country and the world.

The Bicol International Airport, when realized, will "catapult the tourism potentials of Albay, serve as anchor for modern business platforms and as a fulcrum for spatial integration of Albay and neighboring Sorsogon province into one common economic market," Salceda noted.

The site for the project acquired by the Albay Provincial Government at a low but fair price of P28 per square meter, the governor said, was accomplished through proper consultations with the communities involved, and without the participation of schemers. The transactions, he added, also employed no high-handed government expropriations actions.

The Bicol International Airport easily qualifies as one of the biggest and most ambitious government projects in the Bikol Region to date, with prospects of even greater returns on investment that is certain to spur the region's economy and thrust its tourism industry to the international stage.