ALAMINOS CITY – Expressing gratitude to President Arroyo for approving the city’s request for a commercial airport, Mayor Hernani Braganza said the airport would make Pangasinan accessible to tourists and investors.

In her state of the nation address, Arroyo said Speaker “Joe de Venecia and Nani Braganza are asking for an airport in Alaminos. Will do.”

“This has been a long dream of Alaminos and Pangasinan that will soon become a reality. It will make the province accessible to businessmen and tourists, and hopefully, it can accommodate cargo planes for Pangasinan to export its agricultural resources,” Braganza said in a press conference.

The mayor said the project was conceived during the Ramos Administration but was only approved during the Arroyo Administration. “I hope that the project was included in the proposed P1.3 trillion budget proposed by the President to the Congress.”

“Perhaps the President wants the project to be completed during her term, so she will inaugurate it. I want it also completed during my term,” Braganza said.

He appealed to other local officials who also wanted to have airports in their towns, to support the proposed Alaminos project “para di mawala sa atin (so we will not lose the project).”
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“The project is a commercial airport, not airstrip or airfield. We have a President who finally recognized the importance of a major airport to connect Pangasinan to other regions and other countries. Lets not reduce it into a turf war,” he said.

Second district Rep. Victor Agbayani meanwhile urged Pangasinan leaders to agree among themselves which airport should be developed into an international airport, but said “we will be happy to have an airport in Alaminos.”
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here are existing airfields in the capital town Lingayen, Rosales and Binalonan. Sta. Barbara Mayor Rey Velasco earlier said the Air Transportation Office has sent personnel to study his proposal for an airport. Mapandan also proposed an airportbut Mapandan Mayor Ferdinand Calimlim said he will contemplate if he will still pursue the project in his town.

Alaminos is home to the world-renowned Hundred Islands National Park which draw thousands of tourists annually. But it is the only tourist attraction in Pangasinan, especially the western part where all towns, except Mabini, are coastal towns which are potential tourism areas..

Braganza said there is already a proposed international airport to be constructed beside the abandoned Proton Car Assembly Plant at the boundary of Alaminos and Mabini town.,

The Air Transportation Office has conducted an initial technical evaluation for the establishment of an airport which is estimated to cost about P700 million for a 700 meter runway.

But to accommodate large cargo planes, the airport will need a 1.2 km runway and the project cost could amount to P1 billion. “The airport should be constructed the soonest so that the cost will not escalate,”Braganza said.

He explained that the lack of air transportation to the province lagged behind other provinces in terms of development. “It should have achieved more development considering the vast resources of the province.”

“Who wants to travel for 3-6 hours by land transportation to get to the province? With an airport, tourists and investors from other countries can fly direct to the city,” he said.

He said Asian Spirit has committed to include the city one of its destinations, Braganza reveal

He said Joaquin Ernesto Po, executive vice president of the international airlines, told him in a letter that the Asian Spirit was impressed with the city’s ten-point development program and vision for the city and wanted to be a partner in the city’s development.

Po hoped that the proposed Alaminos airport will be able to accommodate the airlines’ jet aircraft to enable the company to fly-in tourists from Korea or Taiwan direct to the home of the Hundred Islands.

Po said that on the second quarter of this year, the Asian Spirit will start its international flight to Korea. “Most tourists like the Taiwanese and Koreans prefer to fly from their country direct to any Philippine tourist destination like Davao, Boracay and Cebu.”

The HINP is the country’s first national park and is Pangasinan’s number one tourist drawer. Last year, 99,596 tourists, 7,377 of them foreigners, visited the islands. From January to March this year, 30,925 have gone to the islands, up from 24,821 visitors during the same period in 2006.