Villafuerte hails PBBM's 'fresh orders' for completion of Naga Airport runway expansion, 'Bicol Express'

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has welcomed the "fresh orders" given by President Marcos for the completion of two long-pending transportation works in Bicol, specifically the runway expansion of the Naga Airport and the Philippine National Railways-South Long Haul (PNR-SLH) or “Bicol Express".

The twin directives followed years of waiting dating back to the previous Duterte administration on the watch of then-Department of Transportation (DOTr) secretary Arthur Tugade.

“The President gave his fresh orders on the ‘Bicol Express' and the expansion of the Naga Airport runway to DOTr Undersecretary [Timothy John] Batan during an RDC (Regional Development Council) Region V meeting in Pili last Friday (March 7),” Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said in a recent statement.

The RDC meeting was held on the same day that the President visited the province to lead a campaign rally in support of the pro-administration senatorial slate Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas at the Kaogma Grounds that was attended by a record 80,000 people.

Following the President’s appointment last February of former Presidential Adviser on Flagship Programs and Projects Vince Dizon as new DOTr head honcho, Villafuerte expressed the hope that the latter could give priority to the long-stalled Naga Airport modernization and the revival of the Bicol Express.

Villafuerte said he “expects more priority infra projects currently in the pipeline to get under way with Dizon, a major player in the ‘Build Build Build’ program of the previous Duterte government, as new DOTr secretary".

Pending the expansion of its runway, which would allow the Naga airstrip to accommodate bigger aircraft, Villafuerte had appealed to Dizon to put on hold the Manila Slot Coordination Committee's (MSCC) plan to transfer all turboprop flights by airlines from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to regional airports, particularly the Clark International Airport (CIA) at the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone (CFEZ) in Pampanga.

Budget carrier Cebgo of Cebu Pacific Air (Cebu Pacific) uses for its Manila-Naga flights the turboprop BombadierQ400 planes that seat 50 to 90 passengers.

In contrast, jets like the wide body Airbus 300 planes, which are used in international flights and need longer runways to land or take off, can accommodate 180 to 360 passengers.

Once the turboprop transfer happens by the end of March, Cebgo passengers would have to take a one- to two-hour land trip from Manila to Clark to board their turboprop planes going to Naga City, and take another land trip from Clark to return to Manila after their Naga-Clark flights, said Villafuerte.

He said the other option left for travelers who do not want to go by land from Manila to Clark or from Clark to Manila is to take the 10-hour land trip from Manila to Naga or vice versa.

Villafuerte said that during the RDC meeting, Batan explained to President Marcos that one problem causing the delay in the airport modernization is the government’s longstanding right-of-way (ROW) disputes with certain people whose lands are in the way of the runway expansion plan.

President Marcos directed Batan to see what the DOTr could do to solve the ROW disputes at the soonest so the runway expansion could finally commence, Villafuerte said.

As for the “Bicol Express,” Villafuerte recalled that the PNR-SLH project was one of the flagship railway projects that were supposed to get funding from the Chinese government during the previous administration.

However, the Department of Finance (DOF) decided to withdraw the loan application for this project in June 2022 or just before then-president Rodrigo Duterte left Malacañang.

Alternative financing such as the possible official development assistance (ODA) from Japan or France for the PNR-SLH project were discussed by Batan during the RDC meeting, Villafuerte said.

He said President Marcos then instructed the DOTr to discuss such financing modes with the relevant government agencies to see which option remains feasible for the Bicol Express.

Villafuerte, at the start of the Marcos administration, had proposed that in the absence of Chinese funding, the government could consider financing for the project from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has been a key financier of various Philippine flagship or big-ticket projects, or through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode—or a combination of both.

In case funding comes from the ADB or any other ODA source from Tokyo, Villafuerte said that the government could ask Japan to build instead a bullet train system for the Bicol Express, given the country’s expertise in assembling such trains.