COTABATO CITY – Incoming North Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco said Thursday the completion and operation of the mothballed Central Mindanao Airport (CMA) in M’lang, North Cotabato will be one of her priorities.
Catamco, an outgoing member of House of Representatives representing North Cotabato’s first district, won in last month’s election against Mayor Roger Taliño of Carmen, North Cotabato.
The CMA airport, also known as M’lang airport that has been idle for about a decade, was built primarily to provide a faster mode of transport for perishable agriculture products from the province to bigger markets in Manila.
Constructed during the administration of then-Governor Emmanuel Piñol, now agriculture secretary of Duterte administration, CMA was also designed to reduce the travel time of the people of North Cotabato to Manila and other big cities for business or leisure purposes.
Designed to operate as a feeder airport to other nearby air terminals in the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Davao, and General Santos, the airport was expected to cater to some 3.5 million passengers traveling to and from Central Mindanao annually.
Piñol claimed the completion of the airport was stalled due to politics.
“The mothballed airport should be operational so that we have three airports in the region,” Catamco said in a statement, referring to the other airports in Awang, Maguindanao, known as Cotabato airport and the General Santos City International Airport.
Catamco said she would coordinate with national agencies, among them the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines for her to be properly guided in her plan to open the multi-million airport.
It is supposedly the only inland airport in Mindanao with capability for commercial flights. It occupies 62 hectares (150 acres) of lands with a 1.2 kilometers (3,900 ft.-long) concrete runway and a terminal building.
In December 2009, the construction of the airport’s terminal building was completed but its opening was mothballed when then Governor Piñol was defeated.
During that time, the national government has allocated some PHP430 million for the construction of the airport. (PNA)
