 In October 1995 , the Iloilo city government announced its intention to construct a new airport outside the city in cooperation with the private sector . A year later , the Department of Transportation and Communications ( DOTC ) announced its intention to construct a new airport in Iloilo with German assistance , originally to serve as a reliever for a larger airport to be built in <unk> City , Negros Occidental ( which would later become the Bacolod @-@ <unk> International Airport ) . Although two sites were initially proposed : north of the city in Santa Barbara and south of the city in the province of Guimaras , the ATO decided to keep the airport in Iloilo , citing the lack of demand in Guimaras to justify construction there . The Regional Development Council for Western Visayas ( RDC ) endorsed the project to the National Economic and Development Authority ( NEDA ) in July 1997 . Despite the endorsements , the NEDA , citing an internal rate of return below the set " hurdle rate " of fifteen percent and the impossibility of acquiring some 415 hectares ( 1 @,@ 030 acres ) of land for the project in one year , rejected the airport proposal in February 1998 , and the project was subsequently excluded from the 1998 development cooperation program of the German government . 
