The Department of Transportation has allotted more than half-a-billion pesos and has partnered with the Department of National Defense to repair, rehabilitate and expand four airports in Luzon and Mindanao.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade and Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana signed late on Monday a memorandum of agreement that will jump-start the infrastructure development of the airports in Laoag, Vigan, Cotabato and Tawi-Tawi.

Under the deal, the transportation department will allocate P688.02 million for the asphalt overlay of runway and strip grade correction of the Laoag International Airport, the runway extension of the Vigan Airport, asphalt overlay of the runway of Cotabato Airport and the construction of perimeter fence and embankment of the Sanga-Sanga (Tawi-Tawi) Airport.

“I hope this is just the beginning of many wonderful days to come, where the national defense can walk hand-in-hand with transportation in trying to fulfill the mandate of making the Filipino life comfortable,” Tugade said.

The Philippine Army’s infrastructure-development arm will undertake the airport projects.

“I welcome and will see to it that together, we can implement and finish these projects on time in accordance with the approved plans and designs,” Lorenzana said.

The improvement of the four airports is expected to boost the “Build, Build, Build”  program of the government. The BBB is an initiative aimed at rolling out big-ticket infrastructure projects to create more jobs and cut poverty incidence.

The BusinessMirror sought for further details on the memorandum, but none responded as of press time.