Senate to probe lobby group

Two Senate committees will investigate information that a local lobby group is allegedly being funded by foreign interests for it to promote and push for an open skies policy.

Sen. Vicente C. Sotto III said the Senate committees on public services chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo and foreign relations chaired Sen. Manuel Villar will include in their ongoing investigation published reports that the Freedom to Fly Coalition (FFC) is being funded by the Development Alternatives, Inc.-Accelerating Growth Investment and Liberalization with Equity (DAI-AGILE) to advocate for air transport policies favorable to American interests.

The two committees are currently looking into the various bilateral air agreements to determine if there have been abuses committed by government officials in entering into such treaties. Sotto is the author of Senate Resolution No. 533 which prompted the committee investigation.

Published internal documents have revealed DAI-AGILE’s interest in pushing for key policy reforms in air transport in the Philippines and the role of FFC in lobbying for these reforms.

"I think what these documents have revealed concern the national interests so we have to include these groups in our ongoing investigation," Sotto said.

The documents, a memorandum from Dr. David Tardif-Doughlin, AGILE managing director, to Dr. Joseph Ryan, a top AGILE official, sought approval for a P4-million PR budget for the Policy Research Information Strategy and Media Services (PRISM), a local public relations firm, to promote the activities of FFC and the Coalition for Shipping and Ports Modernization (CSPM).

"The contractor (PRISM) will provide key assistance in the management and implementation of public relations needed by DAI-AGILE in its effort to bring about key policy reforms in air transport and shipping," the documents stated.

The documents said PRISM will coordinate with FFC and CSPM in pushing for open skies, ports modernization and new legislation in Congress.

The documents boasted that through the efforts of FFC and PRISM, the "team" achieved a number of successes, including resumption of air flights to Taiwan and the increase in seat capacity to key markets like Malaysia and Singapore.

The members of the air transport team were identified by the documents as Mila Abad, team leader, Cherrylyn Rodolfo, policy specialist; Jose Tesoro, legal expert; Victor Limlingan, strategist; Melody Bejosano, advocacy coordinator, and PRISM, PR specialist.

"PRISM will provide technical services to AGILE… develop and implement the public relations program of the ports and air transport teams in pursuit of AGILE’s policy reform agenda," the documents said.