Duterte vows to build airport in Abra after 8-hour overland trip

Resuming his campaign in the "Solid North" province of Abra, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday promised the locals an airport if elected president.

 

"Wala ba kayong airport dito?" he asked the crowd who attended his event in Dolores Civic Center.

 

"I will build an airport in the extreme north plus a feeder road para mabilis ang biyahe," Duterte added pointing out that it took eight hours to travel to the province from Metro Manila by land.

 

The presidential bet of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) also noted that the lack of infrastructure in the the province was due to the unfair distribution of the national budget. 

 

"Sixty-four percent of the budget for infrastructure is allotted for Metro Manila, and the remainder is distributed to the rest of the country. But how are we supposed to live on that? We can't build roads to connect farmers to their markets," he said.

 

Duterte also blamed corruption for the slow pace of development not only in the province but in the entire country.

 

Abra is part of the Solid North provinces, a so-called regional-bloc vote that includes the Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, and the rest of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). All the provinces in this region have a total of 5,777,889 registered voters. Abra has 156,968 voters. — Trisha Macas/DVM, GMA News