Travelers going up north to places like La Union, Ilocos, Benguet, and Pangasinan often don’t look out of the window of their vehicles during long country rides. The farming town of Binalonan is one of those “forgettable” places because of its undeniably rural characteristic, with a few buildings, single-floor residents, and large swaths of rice fields. Very little is known about Binalonan except for a few excerpts from one of its more distinguished residents, Carlos Bulosan, who described his hometown in his novel America is in the Heart.
The last couple of years, however, have seen a gradual increase in socio-economic activity in Binalonan, due in part to the opening of an aviation school, and a public university. The more recent opening of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), which actually passes through, Binalonan, has literally created a new avenue for business for this sleepy town.
Now, Binalonan deems itself as a hub for specialized education. The University of Eastern Pangasinan (UEP) is unique as it is among the few public universities maintained by a local government unit. Nearby is the aviation school, World Citi Colleges (WCC) Aeronautical and Technological College, founded by Captain Ramon Guico III., who also happens to be the mayor of Binalonan.
“University Town”
The 39-year old mayor said that not long before, Binalonan was nothing more than a huge farmland, producing a variety of agricultural products distributed to major cities such as Dagupan in Pangasinan, Baguio, and Manila. Upon his entry as the town’s mayor, he steered Binalonan towards a single focus – turn itself into a “University Town.”
“There was nothing to be had here except land and so we thought that perhaps we can use this to good use. The UEP was already established and already had a growing number of students. And being an educator myself, I thought that perhaps to get Binalonan to go on a higher level, we should put up our aviation school here,” Guico said.
The large open land, a relatively small population (about 52,000 as of 2010), and few tall buildings were ideal for an aviation school. Guico had first established an airstrip in 2005. Three years later, the WCC campus in Binalonan was put up. With only a few aircraft to start with, Guico said they now have 30 aircraft, mostly for training. The school offers full aviation courses (commercial flying, aviation management), aeronautical engineering, and aircraft maintenance technology. For the Binalonan campus, it has around 500 students.
Because of TPLEX, the WCC becomes an accessible campus for students even those coming from Metro Manila and Baguio. These transients are provided with a place to stay at the campus. The El Pinoy Fly-in Hotel, located within the airfield, is open for both students and tourists.
Hub for aeronautics professionals
Guico noted that the Philippines once suffered the reputation of producing sub-par pilots and aviation maintenance crews. That also changed a few years ago when the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) went after (sic) fly-by-night aviation schools. There were incidences of padding flight logs among aviation students, substandard instruction, and other forms of shortcuts.
“It was because of these problems in our aviation education sector that forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency to downgrade the Philippines. It was only recently that those downgrades were relaxed as the CAAP enforced stricter rules about aviation education,” Guico said.
With the lifting of these restrictions and improving professionalized aeronautics training among the remaining aviation schools, Guico said he hopes the Philippines could produce more pilots to fill the demand for domestic and international pilots and maintenance professionals.
“Binalonan is literally, in the right place. We have students coming from all over the Philippines to train on how to be pilots and aircraft mechanics. The town provides the best conditions for training people,” Guico said. “My hope is that the Philippines can become a hub for world-class aviation professional training.”
— Alexander Villafania
