Provincial Board lambastes council for airport name proposal

Sunstar Iloilo, 8/9/06
By Lory Ann B. Bilbao

THE Provincial Board approved a resolution opposing the proposal that the name of the airport being constructed at Cabatuan, be changed to Panay Airport of International Standards.

The resolution was pushed by Board Member Doming Oso, Jr., chairman of the Committee on Ordinances, Legal Matters and Inter-Government Relations.

Earlier, the Regional Development Council (RDC) made the proposal for the change of the airport’s name. The board cited that there was lack of basis and without consultant to the host province.

Thus, they opted to adopt the original name, which is the Iloilo Airport of International Standards to give honor to the host province and due recognition to Ilonggo leaders who worked for the realization of the project.

"The said proposal was made without consultation either to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas who is one of the members of the said council and to Governor Niel Tupas Sr.”

Oso said this was conceived by the RDC members from the different parts of Region 6, in the presence of Board Members Lilia Gonzales and Cecilia Capadosa and Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Arroyo, last August 3 during the council’s awarding of best government projects.

Reportedly, this was formed into a resolution, which was reported to be forwarded to the office of the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo soon and was hoped to be fulfilled through an executive order.

"Who made the move to pass this resolution? Board Member Niel Tupas Jr. asked.

Gonzales said that it was Antique Governor and Chairman of the RDC Sally Perez.

Oso said that though the proposal was merely aimed to include other provinces like that of Perez's province, Aklan and Guimaras among others, and to share with them the gain of being recognized internationally, the Government of Iloilo was the only contractor and the ones which worked hard for putting up the said project.

Tupas Jr., only wondered why there is now the aim to change the name into Panay when it was Iloilo nine years ago or in 1997.

"It was an insult to us!" Board Member Bernardo Silla Jr said.

"The leadership of the RDC should be consulted. If there is incompetence, the leadership should be changed or condemned!" BM Angel Briones said citing an earlier instance where the city of Iloilo was not also included in the Panay Development Authority (PTDA) when the provinces of Antique and Aklan among others -- which were all located in Panay, wanted to be recognized through renaming the airport in Iloilo into Panay.

Tupas also wondered of the process the RDC exhausted in passing this proposal.

"The usual procedure in the RDC in passing such proposal, the lower council (municipal) endorses to a higher council (provincial-regional). To my mind, the RDC cannot act on its own."

What the RDC exhausted then as per Oso's proclamation was not a procedure in passing a resolution.

Board Member and former Chairman of the Regional Tourism Development Plan Rodolfo Cabado concluded, “The airport being constructed in Cabatuan was conceived in whole of Provincial Capitol. Let the LGU, which sacrificed so much receive the recognition."

He pointed out that the airport has caused the capitol leaders “a lot of headache and heartache" in pushing through the materialization of the airport. Besides, an airport is not named before the island's name where it is located but before the province and the government that made it rise.

Vice Governor Roberto Armada also expressed, in his letter, his strong disagreement with the proposal and also pushed that the airport here be named before Iloilo, where it is located.

Sunstar Iloilo, 8/9/06