Tacloban airport transfer controversy deepens

The Department of Transportation and Communications appears bent on moving the location of the Tacloban Airport after it was devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” despite a meeting just months before suggesting talks were heading in a different direction.

Transportation Department spokesperson Michael Sagcal said in an interview that the policy direction was to move the airport, which sits on a low-lying peninsula, to a nearby location like Sta. Fe, Leyte. He said the process of planning a new airport until opening day could take at least five years.

“Right now we are currently doing site assessments,” Sagcal said. “We are working to have a new airport serving Tacloban by 2020 at the latest.”

Sagcal noted that the current Tacloban Airport was prone to storm surges, an abnormal rise in water levels similar to a tsunami, which flooded the runway during Yolanda. The terminal was also almost completely destroyed during the storm.

“We really have to move it. There is little comfort that we can give to assure the public that a similar situation like Yolanda will not happen again,” Sagcal said.

But it was a different outcome during a March 26 stakeholders’ meeting led by the DOTC and attended by representatives from the Department of Science and Technology, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and his staff also attended the meeting.

A summary of the meeting with the subject “Discussion point in the Tacloban Airport’s location” obtained by the Inquirer indicated that “at the end of the meeting, all of the attendees agreed that it would not be necessary to relocate the existing airport.”

Among the highlights, Raul Glorioso of the CAAP noted that a new airport would take at least 10 years to plan and finish—much longer than the DOTC’s estimate—and that storm surges “do not happen regularly.”

From Jica’s Philippine office, Eigo Azukizawa said that they were prepared to help in the design of so-called shoreline protection for the Tacloban Airport similar to Sendai Airport in Japan.

It was not immediately clear what changed in terms of policy direction for a new Tacloban Airport. Sagcal and Transportation Undersecretary Rene Limcaoco, who was present during the March 26 meeting, did not immediately respond to an Inquirer request for comment on Saturday.

What was clear was that Tacloban’s population, according to its government officers, were satisfied with the current location.

“Nobody in Tacloban City wants to relocate the airport. It is fine where it is,” the summary cited Lila Aquitania, representative of Tacloban City, as saying.

Yolanda barreled through the country last November, killing thousands and damaging key infrastructure facilities. Its effect is still being felt today, with the government currently repairing the runway in Tacloban Airport.

Flights since September for larger jets like Airbus A320s have been suspended but Tacloban Airport can still accommodate smaller turbo-prop aircraft. The CAAP expected the runway repair to be finished by Dec. 15, CAAP chief financial officer Rodante Joya said in an interview.

CAAP, which operates domestic airports like the one in Tacloban, said they were waiting for more detailed studies from the department, Joya said. “Once we receive that direction, the CAAP team can start. We provide technical information like on the runway’s orientation against the prevailing wind,” Joya.