With all his billions, tycoon Ramon S. Ang has amassed so much land that even in Boracay, where he also plans to build a road network from mainland Caticlan, he has lands fit for resorts that he admits he has no expertise in.
For this reason, he is looking for a partner that would build the resort in his 8-hectare property in Caticlan, which he bought while in a joint venture with McDonald Philippines’ tycoon George Yang.
“We don’t have the expertise to develop resorts. So I think we will find a partner to develop those properties,” Ang confided to business reporters at the sidelines of the Aviation Forum last Monday hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines and San Miguel Corp. (to formally announce its takeover on Friday of NAIA).
Ang owns an eight-hectare property in Caticlan, the main gateway to Boracay, as well as properties on Boracay he personally owns and through San Miguel Properties, Business Mirror reported.
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He also expressed confidence that he will finally be able to construct a 1.2-kilometer bridge that will connect Boracay to the mainland of Caticlan, Aklan.
The P5.72-billion project is an unsolicited proposal submitted by San Miguel Holdings Corp. in 2019 to the Department of Public Works and Highways.
“I think it will be approved soon. I will pray for it,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.
“The problem with Boracay is there are so many workers and employees there. But no one can say exactly how many they are,” Business Mirror quoted Ang.
The bridge will help “decongest” the island of workers, who can live in the mainland instead of Boracay, “while tourists can also live in Caticlan and just visit” the beach on the island.
During the closure of Boracay for six months in 2018, the Department of Labor and Employment had estimated 17,735 workers on the island. It was the plan of the then Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force to establish a relocation and resettlement area for the island’s workers, to be located in Caticlan. No further developments have been made after such an announcement in 2022, the paper added.
BusinessMirror’s sources among island’s stakeholders, however, claimed “no public consultation was held about it [the bridge]. But the Malay [government] included it in its previous comprehensive land use plan. It was recently updated and the bridge project is there.”
Opposition
The same sources intimated that the Aklan government is against the bridge because “it will deprive them of the jetty port income since tourists take pump boats going to Boracay from the jetty port of Caticlan, which is maintained by the Aklan provincial government."
Data from the Malay Tourism Office showed some 1.37 million tourists on Boracay from January to August 15, 2024 of which 1.08 million were domestic travelers and only 281,218 were foreigners.
Tour operators have said foreign travelers have lost their appetite for Boracay because of the many fees being charged to them, and the discriminatory higher room rates charged on Western tourists as opposed to mainland Chinese tourists.
Airport upgrade
Meanwhile, Ang said he didn’t see any conflict in upgrading the Caticlan airport (MPH) into an international airport, with the Kalibo International Airport (KLO), just 72 kilometers away. “Those two can operate at the same time [as international airports]. They can co-exist.”
He said the project will be completed by 2026, and was delayed mainly by right-of-way issues.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, who also spoke at the forum, agreed: “The runway at Caticlan can no longer be extended, so the biggest airplane we can operate there is an Airbus 320. But there might be foreign airlines which would want to operate bigger airplanes like an A321, which can operate through Kalibo International Airport. This will give [carriers] options, and as Boracay becomes more popular and more tourists visit, it’s better that we have two airports in that area. And also there are other destinations in the Kalibo area that can be redeveloped for tourism,” Business Mirror said.
Ang’s Trans Aire Development Holdings Corp. is currently handling Phase 1B and 2 in the upgrade of the Caticlan Airport, which includes the construction of a larger passenger terminal that can accommodate 7 million passengers a year. The unsolicited proposal is estimated to cost P2.51 billion.
According to the Public-Private Partnership Center, construction is 51.32 percent complete.
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