Gov to sign EO on Mati airport rehab
DOTr commits P200M for project
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is willing to spend initially P200 million for the rehabilitation of the Mati City airport which has been mothballed for years.
Davao Oriental Gov. Nelson L. Dayanghirang said he is ready to sign an executive order spelling out the details of the project, after owners of the land where the airport is located –the Rabat and Rocamora families who are cousins –agreed to part with their property so that the airport built in the 80s by the Ferdinand E. Marcos administration could be put to use for the full development of Davao Oriental as a tourist destination and a cargo hub.
Dayanghirang told reporters on the sideline of the 52nd founding anniversary of Davao Oriental at the provincial capitol last July 1st that he had earlier sought the help of President Rodrigo R. Duterte in reviving the airport in the beginning of Mr. Duterte’s term.
The governor said that once rehabilitated, the Mati airport will initially service flights between the cities of Cebu and Mati, and later between Mati and Manila.
The airport was first built during the time of the late Davao Oriental governor Francisco Rabat, whose wife, former Miss Philippines Edith Nakpil-Rabat was a member of the Blue Ladies, a group close to Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, influential former First Lady of the Philippine strongman.
Earlier, Governor Dayanghirang reported in his anniversary speech the tremendous increase in tourist arrivals and potential investors to the province in 2018.
