By Gideon C. Corgue
PAGADIAN CITY – After the six-day cancellation of
flights by airline operators, domestic flights here finally resumed Wednesday
morning.
The
resumption of flight operations was the outcome of the negotiation made by the
city government with the heirs of Datu Lucas Taug Boto on Tuesday afternoon at
the city mayor’s office.
The heirs,
who set up a barricade on the airport runway to press their demand for their
lot’s payment, agreed to temporarily put on hold their barricade within 30 days
pending negotiation between the heirs, represented by Suminal Taug, with the
Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) in Manila.
“In the event that the negotiation
fails, we are here to pursue our intention by exercising our rights to property by just compensation
from the above agency and to re-install our barricade/picket to manifest our
demand,” part of the agreement said.
The Boto
heirs removed the barricade
from the runway on Tuesday afternoon with the presence of city officials, law
enforcers and media.
Meanwhile, the
country’s largest airline company, Cebu Pacific, had its flight 5J771 leave Ninoy
Aquino International Airport in Manila at 7:00 a.m, and arrived at Pagadian
City Airport 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning with 158 passengers.
After half an hour, the same plane flew
back to Manila with 119 passengers.
Dr. Jose Armin Virata, one of the
passengers of flight 5J711 said in an interview with a staff of the Philippine
Information Agency (PIA) the cancellation of domestic flights had affected
local tourists, businessmen, government officials, and other who are the
regular passengers of the commercial planes. He also thanked all the parties involved for helping
solve the dispute.
Another passenger Andrey Nadela, an
employee of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-IX, said
the resumption of the flight had given him some ease “of not going to Ozamis or
Dipolog” to take a plane for Manila and back.
Nadela said “domestic flights are badly
needed because Pagadian is the regional center and numerous transactions are
done by government officials and employees here.”
Personal Collection manager Lady Lou
Ignacio said she was happy to learn that the flights had resumed saying that
going to nearby Ozamis or Dipolog would incur her additional expenses and more
time in commuting.
Seaman Romnick Fundal of Imelda,
Zamboanga Sibugay was also happy to have read the information posted on PIA9’s
facebook account about the resumption of domestic flights in the city.