Airport : Poor Province’s Economic Linchpin

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

If the administration of then Cotabato Province Governor Emmylou "Lala"  Taliño-Mendoza did not stall, as alleged by critics, to expeditiously complete the construction of the airport, residents of the economically lethargic province would have been benefiting on the multiplier effects brought by the airport because of commerce.

"Kung gusto, merong paraan; kung ayaw  maraming dahilan,” a Pinoy axiom used  by former governor , former Agriculture Secretary, and present Mindanao Development Chairman Emmanuel Piñol as dig to Talino’s  inaction.
 He mentioned it on his Facebook post dated February 27 this year titled: Mothballed For 9 Years, Airport Finally Taking Off!

 Piñol is credited to brainchild in late 1990s the construction of the 1.2 kilometres (3,900 ft)-long concrete runway and a terminal building’s Central Mindanao Airport (CMA) in 2001 in his nine years incumbency.

 Former Cotabato governor , former Agriculture Secretary, and present Mindanao Development Chairman Emmanuel Piñol.

In  March 12, 2020 incumbent governor Nancy Catamco  assembled majority of the vendors of the lands covered  by the airport at the Provincial Capitol Rooftop in Amas, Kidapwan City and compensated them fully through the funds provided by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

Catamco added that the construction of perimeter fence at the CMA is now on-going and it is also expected additional P77 million will be downloaded by DOTr for the construction of other amenities.  She added the 200-meter expansion of the existing 1.8-kilometer runway would allow the airport to accommodate a 150-seater Boeing 747 aircraft when it opens before the end of the year.

 Cotabato Province Governor Nancy Catamco.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade expressed his support in the completion of the CMA during the courtesy visit by Gov. Catamco a day before she met at the provincial capitol the 37 of the 47 landowners who hailed in Barangay Tawantawan, M’lang, Cotabato Province. He also assured Catamco that by December this year the airport will be fully operational and inaugurated.

The resolve to resurrect the “white elephant” ensued when President Rodrigo Duterte trumpet call the DOTr to facilitate the operation of the CMA, thanks to the request of Catamco, Piñol, and other stakeholders.

If that how easy to solve the nine years of inaction on the part of then governor Talino, then the criticism of those who saw the potential of an airport and assailed the apathy of Talino to an economic linchpin had credence.

If the airport became functional during the early part of her nine years term, one can imagine how it could do to the tourism industry and the perishable agricultural products there like lansones, mangosteen, avocado, and marang.

One of the examples how airport can be a spark plug for the host city or town and her neighboring local government units:

“ In Kenya, 90,000 jobs (and 500,000 livelihoods) depend on the cut flower industry, which supports 1.6% of the national economy, generating around $1 billion in foreign exchange each year. (Source: Kenya Flower Council, 2012) Horticulture has been Kenya’s fastest growing sector and is ranked third after tourism and tea as a foreign exchange earner. Over 90% of fresh horticultural products are air freighted. An estimated 70% of the flowers are grown at the rim of Lake Naivasha, northwest of Nairobi. There aregood road network connections between the Lake Naivasha growing area and Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, a distance of about 80-100 kilometers. Flowers picked in the morning reach markets in Amsterdam by evening. (Source: “Air Freight: A Market Study with Implications for Landlocked Countries” The World Bank, 2009 )”.

Can you imagine the economic benefits to the people there if there was already an airport in the middle of 2000s?

Economic kibitzers in Imperial Manila and other burgeoning parts of the country would not pity the people of Cotabato Province as one of the poorest based on per capita income - gross domestic product (PCI/GDP) and among the poorest in the four provinces’ Region 12 as surveyed by the Philippines Statistics Authority.

Thanks but no thanks to the political vendetta against Piñol by the occupant then of the provincial capitol?

North Cotabato Province is the seventh (7) province with more poorest families in the Philippines according to the Public Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2015. The next survey results of the PSA will be in 2020.As what the table above illustrates North Cotabato is No. 7 with the most number of households, composed by five members each, classified as poor. Cebu Province was No. 1 due to its 2.93 million (exclude its three highly urbanized cities) biggest population outside Metro Manila. It's ironic that the almost one million populated Cebu City burgeoned while its province deteriorated.

Cotabato Province Vice Governor Emmylou "Lala"  Taliño-Mendoza.

At the Soccsksargen area or Region 12, according to the PSA the provinces with most number of poor individuals are the following as based in rank:

1.    North Cotabato -  615, 923 (Population: 1,379, 747 (2015)

2.    South Cotabato – 411, 404

3.    Sultan Kudarat -   393, 833

4.    Sarangani          - 233, 164

When I was cooling off my heels at the canteen of my alma mater Southern Baptist College in M’lang in the middle of 2000 a wife of a retired air force general approached me if I liked pomelo.

“Yes, I plan to buy one sack of it as ordered by my missus who loved the bitter sweet and delicious M’lang variety,” I retorted.

She said there were three sacks of the large citrus at the gate of the protestant’s college and I can get one.

“Since they are rotting at our field because of oversupply and nobody’s buying them”.

With the airport, these sweet pomelos would not be rotting but they could give justice to buyers in Luzon who are captive vendees of the up to P150 a kilo in malls there while this citrus marvel fetch P40 a kilo or less in rustic M’lang town.

I remembered then Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan Mayor Rey Velasco ( a former three star police general) citing the Ginebra Plant as the goose that lays the golden egg what with its P21 million a year business tax paid to the first class town’s coffer.

Then Sual, Pangasinan Mayor Roberto Arcinue told me how the more than P100 million business tax given yearly by the 1,200 megawatt Sual Coal Power went to infrastructures and social services like new municipal hall, legislative building, sports center, police headquarters, health facilities, multi-purpose covered courts, day care and health centers in all the barangays, school buildings, concreted roads, municipal wharf and many more.

The municipality also bought multi-purpose vehicles for every barangay, police patrol cars, and ambulances.

The tiny coastal town was dubbed last year as the second richest town in the country by the Commission on Audit.

Does the airport in the first class municipality M’lang the goose that lays the golden egg to the hard working people there?

I believed it can be.

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(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)