Why only now?
Just consider the facts. The airstrip in Sta. Fe town in the island of Bantayan was built during the term of former governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña. He was at the helm of Cebu in the late ‘80s to early ‘90s. Meaning, that was eons ago, when the only way to contact the towns and component cities in the province was through public calling centers whose installations Osmeña also initiated.
So when the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) and the Provincial Government announced the plan to develop the 900-meter airstrip into a community airport, which is but one of the steps in transforming the facility into a commercial airport, the next question that should be asked is, why only now?
The declaration of the Sta. Fe airstrip into a community airport would include the increasing of the runway’s length to 1, 5 kilometers so it can accommodate direct flights from Manila and other cities.
“If this will happen, then Bantayan island will be at par with Caticlan airport with (a runway that is) 1.6 kilometers in length, and is accommodating thousands of tourists for Boracay,” said MCIAA general manager Steve Dicdican.
To be fair, there were talks, after the airstrip was built, to develop it into an airport, but changes in leadership in the province and at the national level plus other priorities got in the way, and the Sta, Fe airstrip, together with another one built in San Francisco town in the Camotes group of islands, got neglected.
We just hope that this latest initiative would already go beyond the level of talk because the further development of Bantayan island or the full realization of the island’s potential partly hinges on that. After all, even without an airport, the place is already a tourism come-on.
After that, the MCIAA and the Provincial Government can shift their focus on another place with an international tourism potential, San Francisco town and the Camotes group of islands. That would complete a vision that Osmeña presented decades ago yet.
As they say, better late than never.