A legislator from Camarines Sur on Friday expressed optimism that the expansion of the Naga Airport’s runway will be included in the Department of Transportation (DOTr)’s P14-billion program to rehabilitate and modernize regional airports.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the widening and lengthening of the Naga Airport “has been long delayed.”
“We in Camarines Sur are optimistic that with the DOTr’s allocation of P14 billion for the improvement or modernization of regional airports, the long-delayed expansion of the Naga Airport’s runway—so it can accommodate widebody jets like the Airbus A300 that are good for international flights—will finally see the light of day under the Marcos administration,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte, who has long pushed the runway’s expansion from Naga to neighboring Pili, the provincial capital, recalled that this airport project was already approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) during the presidency of the late President Benigno Aquino III, and then identified as a flagship project of the succeeding Duterte administration, “but this infrastructure modernization plan unfortunately remained on the drawing board in both administrations.”
“However, with the recent announcement by Secretary (Jaime) Bautista that the DOTr has set aside P14 billion for the modernization of regional airports, I hope that the expansion of the Naga Airport runway to Pili will finally take off under the Marcos presidency,” Villafuerte said.
Bautista earlier announced the P14-billion airport improvement plan during the DOTr’s aviation and airports town hall meeting in General Santos City on Feb. 5 on the occasion of the DOTr’s 125th founding anniversary.
Bautista announced that the budget was for the improvement of airports nationwide, several of which are to be developed via the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Finance Corp. (IFC) of the World Bank.
Villafuerte backed the rehabilitation and modernization of the Naga Airport along with other gateways all over the country, saying the improvement of air connectivity and mobility will support the Marcos administration’s drive to boost the post-pandemic recovery of Philippine tourism.
“Because the landing field of the Naga Airport is short, it could not accommodate jets like the Airbus A300, and there is always the danger that the smaller planes using this gateway could overshoot the runway,” he said.