EMG favors ‘open skies’ policy with Singapore

The Economic Monitoring Group (EMG) is in favor of an open skies policy only with Singapore but not with six other countries as proposed by certain parties.

The EMG, a inter-agency advisory and coordinating council headed by the Department of Finance (DOF), said it prefers negotiating for increased capacities instead of an open skies policy with other countries with utilization rate of over 70 percent of their entitlements. These countries are South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Japan.

The EMG left out Taiwan which has already entered into a separate agreement with the Philippine government.

The inter-agency group said another option is to adopt a "trigger mechanism" to allow an automatic increase in capacity after a certain load is reached. The inter-agency council has asked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to initiate consultations with the four countries plus Singapore.

There have been proposals that the Philippine government implement an open skies arrangement with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. – Ted Torres