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| Hauling materials delays P200-M rehab of Pag-asa runway |
| Monday, 12 May 2008 13:31 | |||
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Following a four-hour visit to the island on Friday, the PAF commander, Lieutenant General Pedrito Cadungog, said, “Repairing it, asphalting it is not a problem. Even if the money is there, the problem is transporting the materials. Hauling it to the island is the hard part.”. After flooding on the airstrip began posing a hazard to the PAF’s planes back in 2004, the Armed Forces of the Philippines laid out a plan to repair the runway. But a Philippine Navy ship ferrying construction materials in December 2004 ran aground a few meters from shore, beaching in shallow waters while it was being off-loaded. The use of Navy ships was halted and the listing vessel remains where it ran aground. More recently, the AFP entered into a barging contract with a private hauling company to transport the P31 million worth of repair materials to the island, but the firm failed to make good on the deal, PAF officials said. Early this year, the military proposed that a jetty be constructed at the runway’s west end to serve as a sturdy unloading platform for ships, but work has yet to begin. Host to the C-130 Hercules, N22-C Nomad and Navy Islander on resupply, survey and transport missions, the 1,260-meter Rancudo runway built 33 years ago is slowly washing away into the South China Sea. Both ends and sides of the runway are damaged. Part of the southwest portion is perennially flooded. Cadungog, however, said the runway could still withstand takeoffs and landings even in its present state. “In reality, in that condition kaya pa (it can take it). But we hope we can set aside funds for asphalting,” he said. He estimated the total restoration of the runway would cost P200 million, which would have to come from the military’s budget. Pag-asa, one of nine islands in the Spratlys chain being claimed by the Philippines, is home to about 50 soldiers and a modest community of civilians. China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Viet Nam have also staked claims to the resource-rich island group but have agreed to respect patrol and overflight rights of claimant countries that maintain military and civilian installations on the parts of the Spratlys they are claiming. Repairs on the islands they occupied have been allowed by Spratlys claimant countries under an existing code of conduct, Cadungog said, adding that only new construction was prohibited
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