The truth about Caticlan Airport

Do you know that politicians have a favorite dance—the politician’s shuffle—which goes this way? Two steps forward, two steps backward, side-step, side- step and spin.
Try to look at our politicians on how they conduct themselves under any administration. Indeed they have mastered dancing the politician’s shuffle.
It’s no wonder they call politics the art of the possible.
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It is now clear that all the noise generated against the development of the Caticlan Airport is nothing but a desperate attempt to save big-ticket investors in nearby Carabao Island.
Korean investors, I am told, have now realized that they placed the wrong bet on Carabao Island. They speculated that this island, a few kilometers from the island paradise of Boracay, would surpass the latter as a world-class tourist destination.
Let’s rewind a bit. Korean firm Euro Asia and Group Holding led by one Byoung-Youn Park had planned to put up a P5-billion international airport on Carabao Island and undertake a massive tourism package in the area. This would include, aside from an international airport, a marina, a 27-hole championship golf course, a 1,500-room luxury hotel and resort, a retirement village and recreational facilities.
Santa Banana, these Koreans must be dreaming if they can put up all that with P5 billion. It would probably cost them more than twice this amount.
The problem, however, is that Carabao Island faces an open sea. Travel to and from the island by boat, if tourists wish to island-hop, would be dangerous because of big waves at all times of the year. Also, building another airport in the area would violate aviation standards. Carabao Island is within the 25-kilometer radius of Caticlan, the allowable distance between international airports.
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Here’s another point: The airport development of Carabao Island is also being opposed by the provincial government of nearby Aklan because the Korean project could divide the lucrative tourism industry in the area. The Aklan public does not see the need for another airport because the Department of Transportation and Communications has already approved the rehabilitation of Caticlan Airport, the gateway to Boracay island.
My sources tell me that the Koreans my have hit a dead-end and may now want out of the project. The Koreans immediately sent feelers to San Miguel after it bought 51 percent of the Caticlan project. But, my sources added, the Koreans inflated the value of Carabao Island—which they reportedly bought for only P50 per square meter.
My gulay, the food and beverage conglomerate which is now expanding and diversifying into energy, telecommunications, infrastructure, power and tourism didn’t bite and the Koreans are now stranded on Carabao Island!
I must give it to the Koreans for creating a lot of noise against San Miguel and the Caticlan airport development project. The truth, however, is now coming out. What the Koreans have been peddling in their media blitz are lies, after all.
The Koreans concocted threats and lies in the guise of environmental activism, claiming that San Miguel would level off the Caticlan Hill and that, as a result, black sand would replace the powdery white sand of Boracay. My gulay, the “Save Boracay” campaign suddenly became a hot topic among some opinion writers in major newspapers.
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The Koreans failed to realize that their PR campaign could backfire on the modernization of Caticlan airport. Leveling off that hill was never in the agenda of San Miguel. And why should it be? San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang would be foolhardy to destroy that controversial hill given that San Miguel would invest heavily on the airport project. My gulay, would San Miguel kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?
According to Ang, the Koreans’ accusations do not make sense.
Consider this: Geologist Guillermo Balce, a former energy undersecretary who was hired by the San Miguel conglomerate as a consultant, flatly denied that the 48-meter Boracay hill would be mothballed since the proposed expanded runway would cut through the hill. That’s a lot of baloney. The plan would instead extend the runway through slopes. “There is an engineering solution. We’ll rely on very detailed aerodynamics study. The project would definitely not cause the hill’s destruction,” he said.
The alternative includes ways to avoid any potential turbulence caused by wind shear—or the difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. This would allow aircraft to land and take off the extended runway depending on the direction of the wind.