Noli to inaugurate new Silay airport

There are a lot of developing stories in Negros Occidental and the rest of Western Visayas. But the most important now is the opening of the new Bacolod-Silay airport in Silay City. Vice President Noli de Castro will lead the guests of honor at the opening of the P5.6-billion airport on Jan. 18.

Edgar Mangalin, the DOTC’s airport project director, disclosed that the other confirmed guests include DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza, Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo (second district, Pampanga) and acting Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco.

The first flight will reportedly be the Cebu Pacific plane from Manila. It will arrive here at 5:10 a.m. This will be followed by a Philippine Airlines’ flight at 6:40 a.m. and the Air Philippines’ at 7:30 a.m.

Earlier, Rep. Monico Puentevella (Bacolod City) had announced that the airport would become operational by Jan. 18, pointing out that the access road shall have been completed by that time. Mangalili confirmed yesterday that the McKinley road to the airport has been completed and cemented.

This also means that the present Bacolod airport will be shut down. The navigational equipment and personnel of the various airlines and the CAA are set to be transferred to the new airport.

The Air Transportation Office’s 150 personnel, including the security force, will be transferred to the Silay international airport.

Meanwhile, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that he has presented to President Arroyo the petition by Bacolod’s civic groups and PAL owner Lucio Tan to allow the use of the present airport if only for small airplanes.

But that remains a problem since there is a standing prohibition to allow the operation of another airport within a 50-kilometer radius of another.

Of the 37.5 hectares of the Bacolod airport, 17.5 hectares is owned by the national government. The rest – 20 hectares – is owned by the Philippine Airlines.

Well, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has yet to act on applications for a shuttle system from Bacolod to the new airport at affordable rates.

As usual with the new setup, there is expected to be bedlam as the new airport may bring to the fore the issue of taxi rates to and from the site which is quite a distance from Bacolod.

But if the LTFRB can process fast the shuttle buses and fix the affordable rates, it may avoid the initial confusion that marked the transfer of the airport from Iloilo City’s Mandurriao to the Sta. Barbara site.

Dinagyang fever

While Negrenses spent most of their week in paying tribute to their late governor Alfredo Montelibano Jr., Iloilo has been in the grip of preparations for the Dinagyang Festival from Jan. 25 to 27.

Drumbeats have been thrilling Ilonggos in various parts of the city since early this month as the various tribes (tribus) enter into feverish preparations for the street dancing competition on Jan. 27.

Ben Jimena, executive director of the Dinagyang Foundation Inc., expects a bigger market for the festival, considered as the best tourism event by the Association of Tourism Officers and the Philippines (ATOP).

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas also gave assurance that Iloilo City is prepared to cope with a bigger number of visitors expected to attend the biggest Western Visayas festival.

This time, however, Dinagyang will have the added feature of a religious revival which is advocated by Fr. Achielles Secio, OSA, parish priest of San Jose Church.

This means that post the Jan. 24 dance contest among the tribus, there will be the fluvial parade. Gracious was how he termed it, pointing out that it will not just be for the parish but also for entire city.

The fluvial parade, to be participated in by pumpboats, will be from the Iloilo Fishing Port in Molo toward the Fort San Pedro to Aduana. This will be followed by a procession from Aduana to the Capitol and back to the San Jose Parish at Plaza Libertad.

Fr. Secio said the move aims to bring back the religious aspects of Dinagyang, trying to emulate the Sinulog of Cebu where many people continue to dance for the Sto. Niño even post the highlight of the festivities.

Well, that’s adding additional attraction to Dinagyang. Surely that is something which could bring in more people to Iloilo City and boost the spirit of Mayor Treñas.

Antique hydroelectric plant

While we had our eyes focused on Negros developments, we learned that Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez recently announced that a 14-megawatt hydroelectric power plant will soon be set up in her province to augment the power needs of Antique.

Perez said the hydroelectric power plant will be put up in the towns of Bagasong, Lawaan and Barbaza. This will replace the former plan to set up a 16-MW facility in another site.

Meanwhile, she also defended over the radio program “Reklamo Publiko” the plan by Treñas to put up a coal-powered plant in Iloilo City. She pointed out that new technology – fluidized bed – assures that the plant is non-pollutant.

Besides, Gov. Perez, who chairs the Regional Development Council, pointed out that Treñas should be given the chance to solve the problem of intermittent power supply in his city.

Meanwhile, the management of the Panay Electric Co. (PECO) belied the report that the power interruptions in Iloilo on Dec. 25 lasted for several hours.

Engineer Randy Pastolero, special assistant to the PECO president and CEO, admitted, however, that the first interruption occurred around 8:59 a.m. and lasted up to 9:49 a.m. The evening interruption, he added, started at 6:02 p.m. and power was restored at 7:03 p.m. with full restoration at 7:54 p.m.

He blamed the interruptions on a line fault of TransCo’s 69 KV to the Panay Power Corp.-PECO interconnection link.