Arroyo wants new Legazpi airport fast-tracked

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday ordered the transportation department to fast-track paperwork on a new multi-billion-peso "airport on the plateau" in Legazpi City in Bicol. Mrs Arroyo issued the order during her visit to the area, where the Cabinet's disaster cluster held its meeting Tuesday afternoon. New Albay Governor Jose Salceda, who served as chief of the Presidential Management Staff, also briefed Arroyo on the ongoing rehabilitation work on the Legazpi Airport, which Typhoon Reming ravaged last year. A Malacañang statement said the new airport will be built atop a long mountain plateau in Daraga town, just north of Mayon Volcano and the old Legazpi Airport. The "airport-atop-a-mountain plateau" is similar to Cagayan de Oro’s airport atop a mountain. Salceda said it will cost P3.4 billion to construct. Salceda said that once it is completed, the old airport will be decommissioned like the old Iloilo Airport. Meanwhile, Salceda said the repairs to the old airport that will cost around P20 million, including rehabilitation of the terminal building, control tower, transient building, motorpool, dire station, main powerhouse building, terminal powerhouse building, waiting shed, and billboard. -GMANews.TV