PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr.9, 2013) – Commercial airliners are set to resume its operations in Pagadian City in the southern Philippines after authorities on Tuesday cleared the airport of barricades put up by the land owner to force the government to pay the use of the runway.
Air liners suspended operations last week after the owner of the land – the Taug-Boto clans – straddling the runway put up a tent to force the government to pay them some P8 million for the use of their ancestral domain.
Commercial operation at the airport started on April 27, 2010 and many of its passengers come from the Zamboanga Peninsula and in nearby Lanao provinces.
The lifting of the barricade came following a successful negotiation between Suminal Taug and other Boto heirs and the government. Taug’s group met with Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co and other officials and they agreed to remove all barricades at the runway to allow safe resumption of all commercial flights from Manila and Cebu province.
The Philippine Information Agency, in a situation report, quoted Co and Pagadian Airport Area Manager Jose Bodiongan as saying that commercial flights will resume Wednesday as a result of the negotiation with Boto heirs.
“Airport lot heirs removed the runway barricade at 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday following the successful negotiations with concerned government agencies and city officials,” it said.
Among those who negotiated with the Taug-Boto heirs were local police chief Julius Muñez and local legislator Arnold Gavenia, who is the current chairman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee.
The airport suspended operations since April 4 due to barricades put up by heirs of Datu Lucas Taug Boto. Airliners Cebu Pacific and Air Phil Express ply the Pagadian-Cebu-Manila routes. (Mindanao Examiner)
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