DAVAO CITY — The business sector is pinning its hopes on a new airport authority to improve the operations of this city’s Francisco Bangoy International Airport, with legislation creating the new body recently clearing the House of Representatives.
“With the creation of Davao International Airport Authority, we hope to see major improvements in its terminal facilities and services, making it one of the premier airports in the country,” Arturo M. Milan, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told BusinessWorld in a text message last week.
Mr. Milan called on the Senate to expedite its version of House Bill No. 8691, the Charter of the Davao International Airport Authority (DIAA).
The counterpart measure, Senate Bill 1213, written by Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri, remains pending at the committee level.
Compostela Valley 1st District Rep. Maria Carmen S. Zamora, one the main authors of the bill, announced last week that the House bill was transmitted to the Senate last December.
“More than accelerating the development of the means of transportation and communications in the country, the measure will further upgrade the facilities of the existing Francisco Bangoy International Airport and extend assistance in formulating international acceptable standards of airport and accommodation service,” Ms. Zamora said.
Under the proposal, the authority will be in charge of operating and managing the airport as well all other airports in the Davao region, including those that have yet to be set up.
The Davao airport is currently under the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
Mr. Milan earlier said the establishment of the DIAA, which will be similar to the bodies supervising Mactan International Airport in Cebu and Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the capital, will pave the way for the modernization of the Davao airport as it will be independent from CAAP and national funding.
“(Its) earning capacity should be an encouragement to stand on its own,” he told BusinessWorld last year. — Carmelito Q. Francisco
