Air Transportation Office Executive Director Daniel Dimagiba yesterday said their position remains the same that the old Bacolod Airport should continue to be closed due to its proximity to the new airport in Silay.

He said they submitted their recommendation to the office of Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza last month.

However, when asked if this is the final recommendation of the 11-man team he created to study the request of Mayor Evelio Leonardia for the reopening of the Bacolod Airport , Dimagiba, in a phone interview, said he does not know anything about the creation of an 11-man team and suggested that Mendoza be asked about it.

In an interview with the DAILY STAR last month, Dimagiba had said that he issued an office order creating the team with Director Wilfredo Borra of the Airways Navigational Services as chairman and Inocencio Insierto as vice chairman.

All of the nine other members of the team are technical personnel who will listen to the position of Bacolod and may come to the city to conduct another ocular inspection, he had told Aksyon Radyo.

Dimagiba said the team will determine the viability of reopening the Bacolod airport, taking into consideration the facts presented by the group lobbying for it. He said the report he submitted to Mendoza recommended the continued closure of the Bacolod Airport .

The Bacolod airport was shut down Jan. 17 after the last flight to give way for the opening of the P5.6 billion New Bacolod-Silay in Silay City on Jan. 18.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia, has said earlier that he, together with Rodolfo Alvarez, Charlie Hagad and Lucy Ponce, met last week with the ATO committee created through Executive Order No. 6208 dated Jan. 23, 2008, to study and recommend for the proposed reopening of the old Bacolod Airport .

He said they presented to the committee their case during a meeting where Dimagiba, Insierto and Danilo Abareta, Cesar Calingasan and Charlemagne Gilo were present.

Leonardia said they requested the committee to have an open mind and they were told that, before a final recommendation is made, they will sit down with the team from Bacolod first.

He said that during the meeting with the ATO they were assured that the runway lights and equipment are in Bacolod only for storage and safekeeping.*CGS

back to top