STA. BARBARA–If Gov. Amado Espino Jr. can’t possibly be serious about the plan to put up an airport in the province to make it more accessible to tourists and businessmen, Mayor Reynaldo Velasco is.

The mayor sounded resolute knowing that the Air Transportation Office (ATO) has already made initial studies for the establishment of an international airport in Sta. Barbara.

Velasco confirmed that there are such studies and that Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza is sending a team to Sta. Barbara soon to conduct a confirmatory study.

Velasco, accompanied Espino to Mendoza’s office in Manila where the latter also announced the release of P10 million for the rehabilitation of the Lingayen feeder airport.

Mayor Velasco said the DOTC confirmatory study will center on a 500-hectare property in barangay Leet that is part of the Hacienda de los Reyes.

Velasco, a retired three-star police general and one time police deputy director general, said the proposal for the construction of an international airport is not new.

He said this had been endorsed in the 13th Congress by five congressmen from Pangasinan, among them Espino.

The other congressmen are Generoso Tulagan of the third district, Mark Cojuangco of the fifth district, Conrado Estrella III of the sixth district and Arturo Celeste of the first district.

“The confirmatory study should start soon, so the livelihood program we are putting up in the area will not be jeopardized,” said Velasco who was Espino’s upper class man in the Philippine Military Academy.

Velasco emphasized that what would be put up is an international airport, not a feeder airport such as the one located in Lingayen.

He vowed that if the project will not be realized in his first term of office, he will seek a second and even a third term of office to pursue the airport’s construction–LM

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