PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos has given fresh orders to the Department of Transport (DOTr) to mull over ways to possibly speed up two long-drawn-out transport projects that will give a tremendous boost to the local economies of, and domestic tourism in, CamSur and the rest of Bicol, according to Camarines Sur Rep. and once three-term governor LRay Villafuerte.

He said these connectivity projects that were given priority status by the DOTr, and yet never got off the ground, under the previous Duterte administration are the runway expansion of the Naga Airport, so it can accommodate bigger aircraft, and the Philippine National Railways-South Long Haul (PNR-SLH) or “Bicol Express,” to cut travel time from a half-day to just four hours from Metro Manila to—passing CamSur—Albay or Sorsogon.

Villafuerte, who had pushed the implementation of both projects in the previous Duterte administration on the watch of then-DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade and in the first half of the current Marcos government when newly-resigned Jaime Bautista was at the helm of this Department, said the President issued his twin directives on how to possibly fast-track the “Bicol Express” and the Naga airport upgrade during last week’s Regional Development Council (RDC) in CamSur’s capital municipality of Pili.

“The President gave his fresh orders on the ‘Bicol Express” and the expansion of the Naga Airport runway to DOTr Undersecretary (Timothy John) Batan during an RDC Region V meeting in Pili last Friday (March 7),” Villafuerte, who is president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said.

The RDC meeting was held on the same day that the President visited the province to lead a campaign sortie in support of the pro-administration senatorial slate Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas at the Kaogma Grounds that was attended by a record 80,000 people.

The Alyansa rally at the Kaogma Grounds drew the biggest crowd ever for the President’s senatorial bets a month into the three-month campaign period for the May 12 midterm national and local polls, Villafuerte said.

Following the President’s appointment last February of former Presidential Adviser on Flagship Programs and Projects Vince Dizon as DOTC Secretary in place of Bautista, Villafuerte expressed the hope that the new DOTr chief could give priority to the long-stalled Naga Airport modernization and the revival of the “Bicol Express.”

Villafuerte said he “expects more priority infra projects currently in the pipeline to get under way with Dizon, a major player in the ‘Build Build Build’ program of the previous Duterte government, as new DOTr Secretary,” and hopes the projects that could get off the ground soon would include the long-delayed Bicol Express and Naga Airport upgrade.

Pending the expansion of its runway, which would allow the Naga airstrip to accommodate jets or bigger aircraft other than the small propeller-driven turboprop planes that now land and take off there, Villafuerte appealed to Dizon to put on hold the decision by the Manila Slot Coordination Committee (MSCC) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to transfer all turboprop flights by airlines from the NAIA to regional airports, particularly the Clark International Airport (CIA) at the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone (CFEZ) in Pampanga.

In a Dec. 3, 2024 decision, the MSCC ordered the gradual phaseout of the turboprop operations of commercial airlines from the NAIA to the CIA in Clark between end-March and 2026, as a way to decongest the country’s premier gateway.

The MIAA is the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) while the MSCC refers to the Manila Slot Coordination Committee (MSCC), which comprises the DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports; the heads of the MIAA, Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP); and the general manager of the New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC).

The NNIC is the consortium led by San Miguel Holdings Corp. (SMHC) that took over control of the NAIA following its privatization in September 2024.

Budget carrier Cebgo of Cebu Pacific Air (Cebu Pacific) uses in its Manila-Naga flights the turboprop BombadierQ400 planes that seat 50 to 90 passengers.

In contrast, jets like the wide body Airbus 300 planes, which are used in international flights and need longer runways to land or take off, can accommodate 180 to 360 passengers.

Once the turboprop transfer happens by end-March, Cebgo passengers would—in the absence of a longer airport runway to allow Cebgo to deploy jets in its Manila-Naga flights—have to take a one- to two-hour land trip from Manila to Clark to board their turboprop planes going to Naga City, and take another land trip from Clark to return to Manila after their Naga-Clark flights, said Villafuerte.

Otherwise, he said, the option left for travelers who do not want to travel by land from Manila to Clark or from Clark to Manila is to take the 10-hour land trip from Manila to Naga or vice versa.

Villafuerte said that during the RDC meeting, Batan explained to President Marcos that one problem causing the delay in the airport modernization is the government’s longstanding right-of-way (ROW) disputes with certain people whose lands are in the way of the runway expansion plan.

President Marcos directed Batan to see what the DOTr could do to solve the ROW disputes at the soonest so the runway expansion could finally commence, Villafuerte said.

As for the “Bicol Express,” Villafuerte recalled that the PNR-SLH project was one of the flagship railway projects supposed to get funding from the Chinese government during the previous Administration, but the Department of Finance (DOF) decided to withdraw the loan application for this project when the Manila-Beijing negotiations remained stalled before then-President Duterte left office in June 2022.

Alternative financing such as the possible official development assistance (ODA) from Japan or France for the PNR-SLH project were discussed by Batan during the RDC meeting, Villafuerte said.

He said that President Marcos then instructed Batan for the DOTr to discuss such financing modes with the relevant government agencies to see which option remains feasible for the “Bicol Express.”

Villafuerte, at the start of the Marcos administration, had proposed that in the absence of Chinese funding, the government could consider financing for the project from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has been a key financier of various Philippine flagship or big-ticket projects, or through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode—or a combination of both.

In case funding comes from the ADB or any other ODA source from Tokyo, Villafuerte proposed that the government ask Japan to build instead a “bullet” train system for the “Bicol Express,” given Japanese expertise in assembling and running bullet trains.

Japan boasts a network of Shinkansen bullet trains with each train having a top speed of 320 kilometers (km) per hour.

The reported Naga runway upgrade plan is to extend the 1.3-kilomer (km) landing strip to 2 km so it can accommodate bigger aircraft such as the Airbus A320.

Aside from enhancing air travel safety, Villafuerte said the expansion project would provide a big boost to Bicol trade and tourism as the Naga Airport is one of two gateways to the region. (The other one is the Legazpi Airport in neighboring Albay.)

Villafuerte expects a dramatic increase in foreign and local visitor arrivals as an extended runway that will have room for jets will spur more routes and new destinations to be served by the Naga Airport, including the possibility of direct international flights for tourists and businesspersons.

The NUP president sees the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas gaining a foothold in vote-rich Bicol with its pre-weekend campaign swing in CamSur drawing an estimated 80,000 to the sortie where President Marcos appealed for support for Alyansa’s senatorial slate that he described as his “dream team.”

The rally at the sprawling Kaogma Grounds in CamSur’s capital of Pili drew the biggest crowd thus far for Alyansa’s 12-member senatorial ticket a month into this campaign season—a “testament to the formidable support that the President enjoys among us CamSur folk, as we appreciate and value his Administration’s continuous efforts to energize our province and its people,” Villafuerte said.

He pointed out that the President has visited CamSur to kick-off local projects three times already since he assumed office in 2022, including a visit to evacuees to provide aid to them just after supertyphoon Kristine hit Bicol and other parts of the country in October 2024, unleashing the worst flooding ever in the province.

Villafuerte said he expects stronger local support for the Alyansa candidates after several of them expressed support in their sorties for CamSur’s top transport and connectivity concerns, including the Naga Airport upgrade and the “Bicol Express” rail project.

In a statement prior to the CamSur rally, Alyansa campaign manager and Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco cited the “strategic importance of Camarines Sur, given its economic strength, population size and role in national politics.”

“As the third wealthiest province in the Philippines and the largest in Bicol by population and land area, Camarines Sur is a crucial battleground for Alyansa,” Tiangco said.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco