About the coming closure of MCIAA’s runway

Funny, but I read about the coming closure of the runway of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) not from the newspapers, but from the Facebook page of Ma. Cielo Villaluna, communications head of Philippine Airlines (PAL), who wrote that, from September 1 to 21, the Mactan Cebu International Airport's Runway 04/22 will be closed from 1:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. to pave the way for repair and rehabilitation. PAL has either cancelled or delayed several flights in view of the 5-hour daily runway closure within the said three-week period. All other flights outside this window period shall remain operational.

Then I read the news report from assistant general manager Glenn Napuli that MCIAA as allocated P240 million for the asphalt overlay of the entire runway covering the entire length of 3,420 meters and a width of 30 meters. This means, work on the runway will start at dawn 1:30 a.m. to end at 6:30 a.m. As there are four contractors working on this runway, MCIAA officials expect this project to be done in 14 days.

Napuli revealed to the media that the asphalt overlay was supposed to be due in the year 2012, but the focus was on the construction of Terminal 2. Again, this bolsters my demand for MCIA to have a second runway, a project that the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) always told me that we don’t need it yet.

But if we had a parallel runway, we could continue operating the airport with one runway until the entire stretch of the run-way is asphalted. Well with that Xiamen Airline accident a couple of weeks ago happening on the main runway of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), now everyone who knows that I used to be connected with MCIAA would talk to me and tell me how right I was at that time and that if the DOTC only listened to me, that Xiamen Airlines incident would not affect the Aviation industry in this country.

Mind you, some years ago, when the General Manager was Capt. Antonio “Boy” Oppus had a problem in resurfacing the runway after the US Air force evacuated to Mactan during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and since the runway was as long as it is today, heavy life US Cargo planes literally ruined the runway and we had to fix it. What MCIAA is doing today is a lesson they learned from what we did when we had the runway repaved.

Again, now that Terminal 2 is done and the old Terminal is supposed to be fixed… I reiterate my plea to MCIA to make the second runway as MCIA’s major project. Of course we already learned that GMR-Megawide also has a proposal for a second runway. I would like to see that the MCIAA has plans, and whether it fits the plans of GMR-Megawide. We’ll get back to you when I have any idea of what are the plans of MCIAA on this.

*  *  *

It was front-page news in The Freeman that Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella considers it wrong for Mayor Tomas Osmeña to take custody of the three men arrested for refilling butane canisters. Labella was saying that “Ours is a government of laws, not of men. So whatever the laws are, the laws should be implemented and there’s no such thing as a little case.” I fully agree with the vice mayor who is a lawyer… that anything that has something to do with the law… no city mayor should get himself involved in this area because the mayor is not an official of the Justice Department.

Cebu City Police Office Director Royina Garma said they are determined to file charges against Mayor Osmeña this week. This issue came about last Friday when the Parian Police Station arrested three men for refilling butane canis-ters with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at T. Padilla Public Market, Cebu City. Thank God it wasn’t illegal drugs.

Mayor Osmeña admitted that he bends the law for the little people. The folks that he put under his custody were caught on Friday and he didn’t want these folks inside the jail cell for the weekend. Perhaps we should ask the mayor whether he knows those people or not? I mean, how many folks get arrested on Friday and languish in jail over the weekend? In my book, this is the first time that I have heard Mayor Osmeña intervene for people going to jail.

*  *  *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.