Incompetence versus helplessness

During the 20th anniversary cocktails of The Philippine Star last Friday evening at the Makati Shangri-La, a lot of guests wanted to find out from me if I got any response from NAIA authorities about my Domestic Airport column. They all agreed that the Manila Domestic Airport is an embarrassment and a symbol of what is wrong with government bureaucrats today. So, they were curious how such incompetence was explained away.

I had to tell them that, unfortunately, I didn’t get any response, which was as I expected. How can anyone explain lack of action in that aging monstrosity anyway? It isn’t as if they didn’t have the money to have something better there. They do have the money from the terminal fee collections and it must be difficult to explain how they fritter all that money away on things other than providing for the comfort of passengers, something they have paid for.

Don’t worry, I told them. I will propose to United Lab to send their promo girls over to the Domestic Airport to distribute samples of Decolgen Forte and Neo Zep. Between the sauna-like environment in the crowded waiting room and the heavy rains with the flooded tarmac, most of the unfortunate passengers will surely catch if not a cold, the flu. Unilab can do a public service and at the same time promote their products. The DOH should condemn that facility as a health hazard.

On the other hand, we have the MRT-3, whose administrator, former PNP Chief Lastimoso, is crying out for help to prevent the system from self destructing. The system is carrying more passengers than it was designed for. Normally, that should mean more revenues. But the fares are heavily subsidized. That means there aren’t enough funds for expansion of the system to accommodate more passengers.

In the case of Mr. Lastimoso, he claims to be helpless because he has no access to funds to get his job done. In the case of the domestic airport, NAIA administration is just incompetent, because they have funds to get their work done. In both cases, the President must intervene in the public interest. The unfortunate thing with government is that everything is highly centralized in Malacañang. That’s why the shortcomings of incompetent bureaucrats are justly laid at the Palace door.

There were those who told me at the party that probably the NAIA administration is just waiting for NAIA-3 to get going and the problems at the domestic terminal would be over. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the legal problems of NAIA-3 will be over soon. There are still two arbitration cases pending in Washington DC and Singapore. Now, the Emerging Dragons group is threatening legal action too if they are not allowed to take over the project.

Waiting for NAIA-3 to open is unfair and cruel punishment for the domestic passengers who have to use that decrepit domestic terminal. Actually, if they don’t want to use the money they extort from the passengers to build a decent terminal, they should ask the Gokongwei Group to just build their own terminal, specially because the most affected airline there is Cebu Pacific. With four more new Airbus planes scheduled for delivery this year, the situation there could only get from worse to horribly worst.

I haven’t checked the idea out with the Gokongweis, but they have a real estate group and they should jump at the opportunity to build a terminal that can also house a branch of their department store and grocery chain. Maybe, they can get the LRT to extend their line to the terminal (it ends just a few hundred meters away) that would solve the transport problems of the plane passengers too.

Isn’t anybody even thinking of the NAIA administration?

And yes, I still want to know how they are using some P800 million of passenger terminal fees. I am sure they are not using the bulk of it to benefit the domestic passengers who pay all that money.

NAIA-3

Speaking of NAIA 3, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz was telling me during The Star cocktails that probably the best strategy is to start accepting bids to fully expand the Clark Airport with the end in view of using it as the primary airport for Metro Manila. It would take three years to get that done and by that time, the North Railways should be in place. The North Luzon Expressway and the extension to C-5 via Mindanao Avenue should also be in place by that time too.

I told Secretary Cruz that was precisely what I proposed in this column some months ago. NAIA-3 seems hopeless, specially now that the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines has found out, among others, that "the quality of work was not at par and in accordance with minimum acceptable practice, thus diminishing the overall factor of safety of the total ceiling system." So, it isn’t as if NAIA-3 is the only game in town, or even safe to use.

Perhaps, if the NAIA-3 proponents see that government is seriously considering the Clark alternative, that action will drive some sense into their heads. The hard line position being taken by Piatco and Fraport, mostly Piatco, is based on the assumption that we have no alternative.

Well… let us show them.

Rural infrastructure

Both Secretary Cruz and AFP Chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon told me during the cocktails that they are putting a lot of emphasis on building up rural infrastructure as a cornerstone of their anti-insurgency program. It is for this reason that they have asked China to deliver heavy equipment necessary for road building, as part of the military foreign aid package to us.

The modernization of the Armed Forces is starting out now with the engineering and construction groups of the military. It has been shown, Secretary Cruz said, that once such basic farm to market roads are constructed and maintained, the level of insurgency decreases. Once there is an improvement in the economic lives of the people, it is easier to maintain peace and order in the area.

Bulldozers rather than tanks will probably be more useful in our anti-insurgency thrust.