Region 8 bizmen to meet Tugade on Tacloban flights rerouting plan

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 12 (PNA) – Businessmen in Eastern Visayas will meet with Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade in an effort to influence decision makers not to pursue plans to divert all Tacloban-Manila flights to Clark International Airport.

Hotel owner Oliver Cam said members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Eastern Visayas chapters had a meeting with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Diño Thursday afternoon to air their opposition to rerouting plans.

“Diño spoke with DOTr Arthur Tugade and relayed the good news in our meeting at Cebu Country Club. We are looking forward to the consultation meeting with Tugade once Diño is able to confirm the schedule and venue,” Cam said.

The cabinet official assured businessmen that “any rerouting to decongest must have a win-win solution and if implemented should only affect up to 50 percent of flights with passengers to be offered a choice to fly via Manila or Clark.”

“Tacloban should not to be singled out, but that all other Visayas routes should also be part of the decongestion solution,” said Cam, the private sector representative to the Regional Development Council (RDC) representing PCCI.

Various groups in Eastern Visayas aired their concerns after Tugade announced in a Senate hearing Wednesday that the three airlines – Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Air Asia – agreed to transfer all Tacloban-Manila flights to Clark.

The DOTr initially planned to make Tacloban-Manila flights as pilot for rerouting to curb congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

After the DOTr’s pronouncement, netizens in Eastern Visayas have staged an online protest against the plan by using the hashtag ‪#‎NoToClarkForTaclobanFlights on social media.

The Tacloban’s Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, one of the country’s busiest, is the gateway to Leyte, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar provinces.

In the first quarter of 2016, the airport had 311,944 inbound and outbound passengers or a 12 percent growth than last year. (PNA)
FPV/SARWELL Q. MENIANO