Renaming of MCIA pushed

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza has supported the initiative to rename Mactan-Cebu International Airport into Lapu-Lapu International Airport in honor of the great Datu Lapu-Lapu.

Radaza said if she had her way she would want to change the name of the airport.

"Kung ako'y pangutan-on, positive kaayo ko ana," Radaza told reporters, adding that the Oponganons will be happy about it.

Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Officer Hembler Mendoza said that a local survey was conducted recently by the National Historical Commission asking the residents of the city if they are in favor of naming the airport after Datu Lapu-Lapu.

Lapu-Lapu was the chieftain of Mactan Island who fought and killed foreign invaders led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the famous battle of Mactan in April 1521.

According to Mendoza, the proposal from NHC came following the recent declaration of April 27 every year as "Lapu-Lapu Day," a nationwide holiday in honor of the brave Cebuano hero.

President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law last July the Republic Act 11040 as Lapu-Lapu Day or Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu.

"Recognized kaayo si LapuLapu, with this mga istorya, there is a possibility na ma-change ang name. Nindot, malipayon kaayo ang mga taga Lapu-Lapu, ang mga Oponganon on this development," Radaza said.

She said the city will bring up the possibility before the MCIAA board. The city is a member of the board that supervises the operation of the airport.

"We can do a (city-level resolution for) that. Possible (sad) nga ma-bring up ni sa MCIAA board," Radaza said.

In 1956, the runway of the airport was built by the United States Air Force as an emergency airport for Strategic Air Command bombers. It was then known as the Mactan Air Base.

It remained an outpost for the American soldiers until the Vietnam War in the 1960s when it became a base for C-130 unit of the US Air Force.

The airport was opened in the middle of the 1960s in lieu of the Lahug Airport which is now known as the Cebu IT Park.

The Lahug Airport was no longer capable of expansion due to safety and physical problems, prompting the government to transfer its commercial operation to Mactan.

MCIA at present is now a government-owned and controlled corporation, an attached agency of the Department of Transportation and Communication through Republic Act 6958 approved on July 31, 1990.