Tacloban Airport: Now A Year Delayed

Members of the Eastern Visayas Regional Development Council (RDC) have urged the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to expedite the construction of the Tacloban Airport terminal after a year-long delay.

No official from the DOTr project management office and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) area office here is available for comment when asked about the status of the PHP 759 million airport project. I Photo: Joseph Gerard Maraya Facebook

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, RDC private sector representative for multimedia communication, Buenaventura Go-Soco, said the region could lose PHP 5 billion in potential tourist receipts every year pending the completion of the terminal building at Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport.

The project aims to transform the facility into an international airport, according to a Philippine News Agency (PNA) report.

“The project started on December 5, 2020, and its original completion date was May 29, 2022, with a construction period of 15 months. As of August 7, 2023, the delay is already 15 months and counting. The construction time of 15 months has been doubled, and the delay continues to increase,” said Go-Soco, the former regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

The update on the Tacloban airport development was the main agenda of the RDC’s regional project monitoring committee meeting on Tuesday. As of August, the project is at 57.18 percent completion with a negative slippage of 20.20 percent.

No official from the DOTr project management office and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) area office here is available for comment when asked about the status of the PHP 759 million airport project.

In a July 2023 report obtained by the PNA, the CAAP said the delay was caused by an insufficient quantity of construction materials, resulting in a decrease in manpower by the contractor.

The increase in daily planned accomplishments has also contributed to the delay, according to CAAP, an attached agency of DOTr.

Among the solutions identified by CAAP are maximizing the utilization of available materials to expedite concrete pourings and asking the contractor to deploy more workers.

The report also said that as of the end of July, there were 216 workers on site tasked with building a two-story building with a total area of 36,298.98 square meters designed to accommodate 1,670 passengers.

Go-Soco said there have already been resolutions passed by RDC urging CAAP and the contractor to fast-track the project."

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