Private sector hit by DZR airport construction delays

TACLOBAN CITY — The continued delay in the construction of the new passenger terminal at Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport is hurting the private sector the most, with losses amounting to at least P10 million a day in tourist receipts alone.

According to former National Economic and Development Authority in Eastern Visayas regional director Atty. Buenaventura Go-Soco, the delay is not only detrimental to the whole economic development of the region but is also incurring additional losses to the government due to variation orders to the awarded contract.

"We have no big industries in the and agriculture is not producing much. We can only rely on tourism and information technology are the strategies that can uplift the region's economic growth," Go-Soco said.

To recall, the plan to upgrade the DRZ Airport from a domestic to international started in 1997 with a study by Japan International Cooperation Agency indicating the need to upgrade it.

A joint venture of MAC Builders and ML Builders won the bid in 2020 for the construction of a new terminal building amounting to over P699 million with a contract duration of 540 days with estimated completion date last 29 May 2022. The construction work started on 5 December 2020.

But almost three years after the construction started, only the posts and some beams are the only visible structures on the site today — far from a terminal building that should now be standing if the construction was on schedule.