Second thoughts on 'pocket' open skies?

I have sympathized with the position of the local carriers on the need for reciprocity in the matter of air rights. But I have also started to see the logic of unilaterally opening up other areas of the country that can be prime tourism destinations to jumpstart tourism development in the countryside.

In fact, I have for years advocated in this column the strategy of bringing tourists directly to the islands with good beaches and avoiding Manila altogether. There is no reason why we should insist on having them use the decrepit NAIA terminal as their entry point to our beautiful country. Tourism Secretary Bertie Lim gave my concept a name: pocket open skies.

I understand that this is the concept the Indonesians used to make Bali a premier tourism destination. A tourist need not pass Jakarta to enjoy Bali. Many years ago, the Jakarta airport was as bad as our NAIA and just as notorious to travelers for petty acts of corruption. I haven’t been there lately but I am told they have made progress even in Jakarta.

From what I have heard from Secretary Lim and even from P-Noy himself, I got the impression that one of the pillars of their tourism program is pocket open skies. But nine months after he assumed office, it is still all talk. The latest I have heard is that they are studying it some more. That is what bureaucrats say when they are dribbling the ball on an issue.

Worse, I caught this news item quoting the Executive Director of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Mr. Carmelo Arcilla expressing his misgivings about pocket open skies. I thought that was strange because no less than P-Noy said he wanted it and here is one bureaucrat publicly saying it won’t work. I guess I can dismiss his statement as something to be expected from someone in a government regulatory body known as a prime example of regulatory capture. But it still didn’t make sense for Mr. Arcilla to rock the boat so brazenly.

According to Director Arcilla, President Aquino can announce an “open skies” policy but it will not bring in the foreign airlines because among other things, our international airports are lousy. There is lack of safety in the 10 international airports of the country, particularly the NAIA, Mr. Arcilla pointed out.

He also cited the 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent common carriers tax and gross Philippine billings taxes imposed on foreign airlines and the overtime fees, meals and transportation allowances charged by the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine personnel to all international airlines – foreign and Philippine airlines as deal breakers.

Mr. Arcilla is right about these problems but he is part of the government team tasked to address those issues. Shouldn’t he be quietly working with other government agencies to make sure those problems are resolved? It doesn’t look right for one bureaucrat to wash his hands off a problem that his agency must help address.

 It is true that NAIA is below acceptable international safety standards, reason enough why both the US FAA and EU Civil Aviation authorities have relegated us to a substandard category that is now the bane of our flag carriers and the tourism industry. But despite this problem, there are foreign airlines, particularly regional carriers that do not mind using Clark, Mactan-Cebu, Kalibo and even Davao. Pocket open skies will enable them to fly tourists to the country despite the congestion and other problems at NAIA.

The proposed pocket open skies EO will open secondary airports to increased international flights and prevent NAIA from reaching extreme unsafe level of operations. Future increases in international flights can be encouraged to use secondary gateways with the EO.

On the taxes that international airlines are complaining about, Secretary Lim had told me some months ago that he is working closely with the Department of Finance to produce a solution. The DOF, given the fiscal deficit problem, is admittedly still focused on the short term losses rather than on the long term impact of the relief on tourism growth. But Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima is a reasonable person who sees the big picture. I am sure between him and Secretary Lim, they can reach some agreement. If not, some legislators have also taken notice.

Instead of just complaining, the CAB being the agency that regulates the economic aspects of the airline industry should lead efforts to prevent the deterioration of the viability of our international routes. The CAB should support the elimination of the tax burden through change of interpretation by the BIR of certain provisions of the 1997 Tax Code.

 On the overtime issue with immigration and customs, the Court of Appeals already ruled that they have to stop charging the airlines because it is illegal and beyond the intent of the existing law. This should be a non issue at this time. If anything at all, the administration should oppose attempts to convince Congress to make that practice legal. We will look queer in the international aviation industry if we take that route.

P-Noy should have no second thoughts on the EO authorizing pocket open skies. With the rising middle class in our neighboring countries, they are on the lookout for interesting places to spend a weekend or a vacation that is no more than three to four hours away. In fact, these regional budget carriers will bring in not just the nationals of our Asean neighbors but even make our OFWs afford more frequent visits home.

Last week, my son who works in Singapore flew in just for the weekend to dive in Anilao and have a little time with us. He didn’t think twice buying that roundtrip Tiger Air ticket for just about US$150 vs $400-$600 on regular airlines. He could have gone to Phuket, like he normally does, but he came home instead. The higher priced airlines lost nothing because my son wouldn’t have come anyway at the higher fare rate. But merchants in Anilao and Metro Manila gained something, thanks to Tiger Air.

Those budget airlines can launch more flights with pocket open skies and bring in the tourism volumes our ASEAN neighbors get and we can only dream about. We have to give this approach championed by Secretary Lim and P-Noy himself a chance to work. There should be no second thoughts on P-Noy’s part in signing that EO.

 What happened?

 Maloli Espinosa Supnet was being congratulated for over two weeks now every time she shows up at the Tuesday Club. There was a newspaper item as well as an announcement of her appointment at the Official Gazette as a deputy commissioner of the NTC. In fact, according to the Official Gazette, she had taken her oath of office.

Problem is, she has not received her appointment papers much less taken her oath. She had just arrived from Washington DC. She and her husband, now retired BGen Mark Supnet just decamped from their rented house in Bethesda after the general finished his tour of duty as our military attaché in the US capital.

Maloli, from a prominent political family in Masbate, doesn’t know how to respond to the congratulatory messages she is receiving. No one at the Palace could tell her if she had indeed been appointed or not.

We did some sleuthing and found out that P-Noy indeed gave an order to the ES to prepare Maloli’s appointment papers which he apparently signed. But the ES has a problem. He had appointed another person already so there are now 3 deputy commissioners when the law requires only 2.

I guess he is hoping that by delaying release of Maloli’s papers, she will just forget all about it and he is home free. That would be a pity because Maloli had been representing the country for years at the International Telecoms Union and knows the ins and outs of the job she was supposedly appointed to.

Oh well... what else is new at the Student Council?

 Perjury

Jose Villaescusa sent this one.

JUAN: Pare, bakit parang ang tagal mong nawala ah...

PEDRO: Nakulong ako pare...

JUAN: Ha?! Bakit naman?

PEDRO: Naalala mo ba yung sexing waitress sa videoke bar? Kinasuhan ako ng rape. At 75 yrs old, I felt flattered pa, so I pleaded ‘guilty’.

JUAN: Bakit ang bilis mong nakalabas?

PEDRO: Kasi yung 65 yr old judge, nag sentence sakin ng 30 days lang in jail... for PERJURY!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco.