MAY THE BEST TOWN WIN

Mayor Velasco seeks foreign investors

STA. BARBARA–This town is not giving up on its bid to be the site of an international airport in the province as promised by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Mayor Reynaldo Velasco, bent on making Sta. Barbara the airport site, said he will look for funding outside the country to finance the feasibility study for the project and the construction of the airport itself.

President Arroyo last year announced that an international airport will be built within her term in Pangasinan to be located in Alaminos City, home of the Hundred Islands National Park.

In a talk to reporters on Monday, Velasco said representatives of the Air Transportation Office (ATO) came to Sta. Barbara last week and told him that the town’s location “is well within the technical requirements” for the airport project.”

However, he was told that the P7.8 million set aside in the proposed national budget for the international airport’s feasibility study will be spent solely in the announced Alaminos airport project and nothing for Sta. Barbara.

“There’s no problem about that. It is only P7.8 million. We can look for that amount somewhere else, including the money that will be used to build the whole international airport,” Velasco said.

The ATO has narrowed down the list of potential airport sites to Alaminos and Sta. Barbara, leaving out Lingayen which was also considered earlier.

Velasco said the President has encouraged him to look into the Sta. Barbara option saying, “Rey, tignan mo lang kung mas maganda yan, Yon ang ilagay natin sa SONA next year.”

The mayor said because of that statement of the President, “I am now more determined to make sure that Sta. Barbara will also be the location of an international airport.”

He said if Sta. Barbara will turn out to be the better site of the project based on the feasibility study, he will personally seek funds from outside the country to put up the airport under a Build-Operate-Transfer scheme through the National Economic and Development Authority.

“Bahala na ang Alaminos na magkumbinsi sa gobyerno na pondohan ang airport. Pero ako, maghahanap ako sa labas para hindi mahirapan ang gobyerno,” Velasco said.

“That is how we do things in Sta. Barbara. If there is a problem. We solve it ourselves,” he added.

INVESTORS

Velasco said he has had initial talks with a Singaporean group from whom he is asking P700 million to partially finance the construction of the airport.

Velasco said he is willing to give 600 hectares of land in barangay Leet as site the airport but the Singaporeans wanted 1,000 hectares because they are looking for a more comprehensive development of the site once the airport is built.

The group, he said, earlier bidded for the Fort Bonifacio privatization but lost.

Aside from the Singaporean group, there is an American group that has hinted interest in the project.

A third interested party is Velasco’s Korean friend who owns a company that manufactures pre-fabricated houses at the Cavite Export Processing Zone for export abroad, and is also eyeing to build a world-class golf course in Subic.

Velasco called on his fellow officials not to resent him for pursuing the airport project because an airport would benefit his constituents.

“We have a homework to do and we will do it because we do not want to lose by default since it might just turn out  in the end that Sta. Barbara is the best place for the airport,” Velasco told newsmen.

Velasco, initially dismayed by reports that Sta. Barbara is not suitable for an airport being a flood-prone area, clarified that barangay Leet, the prospective site, is not prone to flood.

“May the best town win,” he said as he appealed to his detractors to await the result of the feasibility study.—LM

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