The view of the Catarman Airport from the airplane's window upon arrival from Manila is a sorry and sad one. A portion of the roof and ceiling is about to fell off. The roof and its paint is a battered one. Getting your luggage takes a long time and is a total chaos, a free for all manual exercise that even shames a bus terminal. The airport is very cramped and passengers are often left with the choice to sit on the dirty benches that are not actually benches but a fence for the plants adorning the airport entrance. When I arrived, I sat on one of the seats in the Departure area, none in the Arrivals area, while waiting for my ride to come. The airport cleaning staff and personnel had to rudely do some other things to shoo me away but not directly just say to me that the airport will close, after just 15 minutes that the plane had landed so I will have to wait in the cement fence cum bench.
When I left for Manila, I noticed that the Pre-departure area section, always haS been cramp, is now also very hot. It used to have air-conditioning. Security is very lax, which is a bit disconcerting given that Northern Samar is still rebel infested. Before the 2010 elections, there was a billboard proclaiming that the Catarman airport will be renovated complete with a rendering of the proposed project but nothing came out of it. This is also the airport where it has been featured nationally on television as the only airport with an active to traffic road cutting through it. I could go on and on, but let the pictures do the talking.
