Ate Glue’s SONA forgot Manila Domestic Airport

The new international standard airport in Iloilo is supposed to be ready for business sometime next year. If that happens, it would be a lot more decent than the Manila Domestic Terminal, which I can only presume, will still continue to torment millions of travelers that are doomed to use it. They are collecting P800 million in terminal fees at Manila Domestic every year and my question is, WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING?

It was my first time to use the Manila Domestic Terminal since last Christmas and I am unhappy to report that it is still overcrowded (as in Standing Room Only), oppressively warm (as a sauna room) and as badly managed as it has ever been. The only "improvement" was a badly produced bulletin board that features the supposed goals of Ate Glue’s administration. A clean, comfortable and modern airport is apparently not one of them.

The line for the ladies’ restroom was as usual, long. It took my wife 20 minutes for her turn to get her business done. One hates to think what happens if a woman happens to have a real and absolutely urgent emergency that Lomotil failed to arrest, given that long line. And you can imagine what happens to sanitation when you have that great number of users. The men’s restroom was a typical restroom in a third world town, with its aromatic aroma, if you know what I mean.

This is not an airport terminal, as the civilized world understands it. This is more like an absolutely pedestrian bus station in Pasay or Cubao… the only things missing are the live chickens and piglets. And this will only get worse. Cebu Pacific is scheduled to receive delivery of four more large Airbus jets in the next few months. Given how the Gokongwei airline is functioning like those budget airlines, they are packing those planes full. No wonder there’s pandemonium out there… There are just too many people using the terminal now than it can handle.

The worst part of the Manila Domestic experience was returning home in pouring rain last Sunday evening. With the tarmac flooded to at least ankle deep, there is no way you can escape being drenched from head to foot between the airplane and the terminal building. What major country in the world today still treats airline passengers in this uncivilized manner? Yet, this is the gateway to the country’s top tourist destinations like Boracay, supposedly a priority of Ate Glue.

The investments the Gokongweis made on those brand new Airbus planes should have been contributing to bringing Philippine domestic air transportation to accepted international standards. Instead, sayang lang because our inept government is unable to put the right infrastructure to match private sector investments in tourism, a supposed priority sector. How difficult is it to put up a decent terminal building, even if temporary, considering that they are collecting P800 million a year from domestic airport users (P200 per passenger x four million passengers).

Yet, there is Ate Glue who kept on talking during her SONA about how she plans to modernize one airport after another in far away places all over the country… from Bagabag to Balabac. Her credibility is severely tested by this failure to take care of the Manila Domestic Airport, the most important of all airports.

And let us not use lack of funds as an excuse for this continuing failure. Airport passengers are presumably paying for something when they pay their terminal fees. I also understand those fees are exempted from the usual government audits… treated as "corporate funds"… meaning the NAIA administration can use it as it pleases… parang Pagcor!

Let us also not say part of it goes to the general fund. If it is the case, then the practice should be changed. The terminal fee is not a tax but a payment for a service. The fact that passengers get no benefit from it only means the NAIA administration is the biggest legalized racket in this country, an organized crime, in a manner of speaking. They are getting our money and not giving us our money’s worth of service… that’s official extortion.

Give us no more excuses. WE NEED A MODERN AIRPORT TERMINAL, NOT A THIRD WORLD BUS STATION NOW, NOT SONA OR LATER. Or maybe we need a Congressional investigation to find out where our money is going.

Iloilo

According to the Department of Labor, Central Visayas posted the highest employment growth rate among the 16 regions in the country in the first four months of the year. I am not surprised. The vibrancy of the economy in this region is fairly visible. The same seems to be true with Western Visayas, notably Iloilo.

I was in Iloilo last weekend to observe the formal launch of various social development projects of the Lopez family and their group of companies, in celebration of the 105th birthday of the late Don Eugenio Lopez Sr. It was like going back to their roots in Jaro, Iloilo for the Lopezes, particularly for those in the third and fourth generations who grew up outside the region.

The vibrancy of Iloilo is probably because it is far from the political noise of Metro Manila. It is also likely due to the quality of local leaders, like Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, who is also the president of the League of Cities (LCP). The other notable local leader is Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). So I guess, it cannot be said that they are unaware of the hot issues in the national scene.

Trade and industry comes naturally to the Ilonggos. Lopez family historian and media columnist Raul Rodrigo relates that in 1858, Sir John Bowring, then the Governor of Hong Kong, visited Iloilo and was promptly impressed. He described Iloilo as "perhaps the most productive in agriculture and the most active in manufacturing, industry and among the best instructed of the Philippines."

Rodrigo also reports in his history of the Lopezes that while in the early days "the base of the Iloilo economy was agriculture, the centerpiece was the native weaving industry. All over Iloilo, toiling at an estimated 50-60,000 looms, Ilonggo women spun and crafted exquisite fabrics of piña, sinamay, abaca and cotton." Today, buying these woven fabrics should be part of any visit to Iloilo. I myself, bought a beautiful barong material from the Villanueva sinamay house in Arevalo, Iloilo.

In 1842, Rodrigo reports, Iloilo exported 240,000 francs worth of cloth to markets in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. "By 1861, the weaving industry was exporting a million dollars worth of cloth a year." In fact, Rodrigo writes, as the weaving industry started to bloom in the late 1700s the resultant prosperity began to create the first urban center in the province as well as the beginnings of an emerging entrepreneurial class.

That’s why Iloilo, like Cebu, feels like a long established entrepot.

Today, the Ilonggos are working to develop the tourism industry as well. What the tourist will get out of Iloilo is a lot of history or what they call here as a heritage tour. Some of the old families have opened up their ancestral homes to tourists. There are also the many churches, including the beautiful Miagao church, which in 1993, was included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List under the title "Baroque churches of the Philippines."

The Augustinians began building the present church in the year 1786. The structure was completed in 1797. Restoration is an ongoing concern as the soft yellow sandstone used in the church erodes easily. The façade is a mixture of decorative styles–Classical, Baroque, Rococo–all linked by tropical fantasy in a design uniquely Philippine. For this synthesis and reinterpretation of foreign influences, Miagao church is called a World Heritage Site. It is less than an hour’s drive out of the city, and no visitor should miss it.

The problem of tourism in Iloilo is the lack of quality hotel rooms. There are less than a thousand decent hotel rooms, and none anywhere near the five star standards of a Shangri-la. This is why during the colorful Dinagyang festival (every fourth weekend of January in honor of the Child Jesus), tourists have trouble finding a place to stay.

Iloilo needs investors who would put up something like the Mactan Shangri-la or Plantation Bay. There is no shortage of scenic locations for such resorts in Iloilo as well as in Guimaras, the province across the Strait. Until then, tourism in Iloilo would be more of a cottage industry that is far from hitting the big time. The inauguration of the new airport opens Iloilo to direct flights to the region’s richest tourism markets of China, South Korea and Japan. That should encourage investors to put their money on Iloilo tourism.

Hallway sex

Lal Chatlani sent us this one about the kind of sex he calls hallway sex. It supposedly happens between some partners who have been partners for too long.

When they pass each other in the hallway they both say "screw you."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]