Ulugan Bay in Puerto Princesa ripe for new airport; can be a city soon – Gov. Alvarez

From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 6): Ulugan Bay in Puerto Princesa ripe for new airport; can be a city soon – Gov. Alvarez

With exciting developments at Ulugan Bay in Barangay Marufinas, where the Naval Forces West (NFW) headquarters is located following the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez said it will soon be ripe as the site of a new airport and can be a potential new city.

In interviews with the media Thursday following an official visit from U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg’s at the Governor’s Office, Provincial Capitol Building, Alvarez said that Ulugan Bay has all the promises of a fitting site for a brand new airport in Puerto Princesa.

“If you ask me, I have a suggestion to Mayor (Lucilo) Bayron to make one more airport… though the city is not my territory… in Ulugan Bay. It is very a beautiful site for an airport because the approach is all seawater,” he said, adding the new airport can be constructed 2.7 kilometer runway in between two roads.

He stated that if a new airport is constructed in the barangay area, and development crawls in considering its proximity to the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) at Sitio Sabang, Barangay Cabayugan, “it can be a new city in Palawan.”

“The current airport, in the next 25 years, will become very, very congested, so, it’s high time,” he said.

Alvarez cited as sample the United States’ 54 million dollar funding of the Sarangani Airport upon seeing that the bay is a potential site for increased tourism activities.

“The future airport, if constructed in Ulugan Bay, can be vital to the Philippines defense and the American presence, if they will come. This is because in the next 10 years, this airport in Puerto Princesa will become really crowded,” he said, “for their aircrafts to land.”

Governor Alvarez said that for him, a new airport in Ulugan Bay “is not at all only related to EDCA but to boost tourism in Puerto Princesa since access to the PPUR will become easier.”

“If an airport is there, and close to the PPUR, then travelling will become easy for some tourists, who will want to go there,” he said, supplementing that he is just forward thinking.

Alvarez said he has seen the place, and he knows where the ideal site is located – one that is where no homes have been constructed.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=650942