AIRPORT ISSUES. North Cotabato provincial legal officer Jonah Mineses (standing) discusses the problems surrounding the mothballed Central Mindanao Airport situated in M’lang town in a recent meeting with other local officials. Seated, left to right, are Provincial Administrator lawyer Nicholas Marasigan, Board Member Maria Krista Piñol-Solis, Governor Nancy Catamco, Board Member Onofre Respicio, and Provincial Planning and Development Officer Cynthia D. Ortega. (File photo courtesy of North Cotabato PIO)
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- North Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco on Saturday ordered the Technical Working Group (TWG) on the mothballed Central Mindanao Airport (CMA) or the M’lang airport to fast-track the processing of legal documents so the facility could operate soon.
Keen on completing the project to serve its purpose, Catamco met beforehand with the owners of lands where the airport was constructed in Barangay Tawan-Tawan, M’lang, North Cotabato.
The more than a decade-old proposed airport was designed to help farmers speed up the transport of their perishable farm products to other cities and provinces in Central Mindanao and the rest of the country.
One of the problems identified was the lack of deed of sale for the lands purchased by the provincial government in connection with the project. For this, the lot owners continued to pay real property taxes since these were not fully acquired by the provincial government, the governor said.
The governor subsequently ordered the immediate processing of the legal documents needed so lot owners could be fully paid.
Catamco said the provincial government will have to reimburse the taxes owed to the province of Cotabato since the time it acquired the lands.
She then tasked Provincial Legal Officer lawyer Jonah Mineses to hasten the release of the confirmation of sale and other necessary documents needed to push through with the project.
Wanting quick results, Catamco gave the TWG this whole month of August to solve the problem.
Constructed during the administration of then governor, now Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, the CMA was also designed to reduce the travel time of the people of North Cotabato to Manila and other big cities for business or leisure purposes.
More so, it was designed to operate as a feeder airport to nearby air terminals in the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Davao, and General Santos, expecting to cater to some 3.5 million passengers traveling to and from Central Mindanao annually.
Piñol claimed the completion of the airport was stalled due to politics.
“The mothballed airport should be operational so that we have three airports in Region 12,” Catamco said in a statement, referring to the other airports in Awang, Maguindanao, known as Cotabato airport and the General Santos City International Airport.
Catamco said she would coordinate with national agencies, among them the Department of Transportation and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines for her to be properly guided in her plan to open the multi-million airport.
The CMA is supposedly the only inland airport in Mindanao with the capability for commercial flights. It occupies 62 hectares (150 acres) of land with a 1.2-kilometer concrete runway and a terminal building.
In November 2009, the airport terminal building was inaugurated by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but its opening was mothballed when then-Governor Piñol was defeated during the election held the following year.
At that time, the national government has allocated some PHP430 million to complete the construction of the airport. (PNA)
