DAVAO CITY – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-Davao Region will put up a P100-million, 400-bed “container city” that will serve as additional holding facility for arriving air passengers, who will be swabbed for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Davao International Airport (DIA).
DPWH-Davao Region Public Affairs and Information Officer Dean Ortiz said, in an interview, that a total of 200 prefabricated container vans would be established in a 1.92-hectare lot, located beside the “tent city” at the airport along C.P. Garcia Highway, this city.
He said that the additional holding facility —at two beds per container van —will be completed by December this year.
“The container vans are already on the way from the capital. We are currently preparing for the construction, and we can start as soon as the containers are here,” he said.
Ortiz said that the agency earlier allotted P120 million for the conversion of the airport’s old terminal to a 100-bed holding area, and the construction of the 1.74-hectare 400-bed capacity “tent city,” comprising of 20 tents, with 10 rooms at two beds each.
The old terminal used to house the office of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) since 2016, until it vacated the building last July.
The construction of the "tent city" was completed last month, he said.
The local government of Davao targets to increase the capacity of the holding areas in the airport to 1,000 beds as it required to swab passengers with no negative COVID-19 tests through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) issued within 72 hours before their scheduled departure from the airport of origin.
Those who are cleared for COVID-19 may proceed home for a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Mayor Sara Duterte said earlier that the local government needs to increase the capacity of its holding facilities to be able to open more commercial flights going to and from the city.
Based on the data released by the City tourism and Operations Office, arrivals in the city through air travel from March to August this year were reported at 128,542, a decrease by 90% from 1,349,730 reported for the same period last year.