Cabinet team, foreign and local executives meet on NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - Some Cabinet members and local and foreign executives yesterday attended a three-hour economic managers meeting at the dignitaries lounge of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA 1) in an effort to improve the country’s premier airport.

“Among the things we discussed was how to improve the experience of incoming and outgoing passengers,” said Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus. “We want to make it world class and improve the service.”

The other Cabinet members who attended the meeting aside from De Jesus were Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, and Secretary Rogelio Singson of Department of Public Works and Highways.

Other officials present included Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Jose Honrado, immigration Airport Operations Division (AOD) chief Arvin Santos, immigration head supervisor Teody Pascual, customs collector for passengers services chief Tess Roque and several undersecretaries.

Representatives from the private sector included former Public Works secretary Fiorello Estuar, John Forbes, Alfonso Uy, David Balangue, Arnold Salvador and Roy Navarro, among others.

“We showed the visitors how we can improve the services and what face lifting should be done,” Honrado said, adding that representatives from the private sector were also invited to share their expertise on handling passengers.

The airport chief expected the facelift of the airport to start first week of October and end by Nov. 15, in time for the Christmas season.

Secretary Lim said the private sector representatives initially suggested improving the bathrooms and airport signs.

He said the immigration areas would be able to accommodate more passengers by implementing a “snake line” instead of several lines, and adding more passenger booths at the counter.

“We have to move to Clark, this is a six-year project,” Lim said, emphasizing that NAIA is nearing full capacity and the country needs a bigger area to accommodate a bigger passenger terminal, cargo terminal and parallel runways.

“At Clark we could have more than one terminal, we could have a budget terminal, a regular and a domestic terminal,” he said.

The Tourism secretary also agreed that more infrastructure is needed in case a transfer to Clark is realized.