Maybe Mar should run next year

The last time I had a chance to talk to Sec. Mar, some six months ago, I urged him not to run for the Senate or the House next year and just do well at DoTC. I figured that if Mar can deliver enough big ticket projects as DoTC Secretary, he will have a good platform to run for president in 2016.

That turned out to be a big IF. If Mar just worked backwards on a timeline, he will realize he has run out of time to get any of the projects completed by 2016. His muddling through management style cannot deliver what the country urgently needs.

The thing with infrastructure projects is that you cannot take your time in the beginning and try to rush at the homestretch. At the very least, cement needs a certain amount of curing time. There are quality checks that must be performed which may make it necessary to re-do some aspects of a project.

I think for P-Noy’s sake, Mar should just run for the Senate again so that a better replacement can be tasked to fast track the projects that Mar is so afraid to get going. I am worried that when 2016 comes around, P-Noy will have little or nothing to show by way of a civilized international gateway airport and efficient mass transport system. Even in something as simple as getting car plates, the LTO which is under Mar, can’t deliver earlier than a few months after you have bought a new car.

Trying to win back his old Senate seat will be the best thing for Mar. Being a senator does not require managerial abilities, something Mar is proving he has little of. All you need to shine as a senator is a good publicist and that’s probably why we thought Mar was good enough to even be president until his so called managerial skills were put to the test at DoTC.

Or maybe, Mar’s unexpected defeat at the hands of Jojo Binay has so traumatized him. Mar is apparently carrying the heavy emotional burden of his defeat into his DoTC position so that he is finding it extremely difficult to be effective… to make decisions.

The case of the PNR air rights which the Home Guarantee Corporation advertised for auction is a case in point. It so happens that HGC is under Jojo Binay so Mar found it difficult to negotiate even if doing so is essential to the success of his mission at DoTC. Another cabinet member had to do it for him.

My sources told me that Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima at the instance of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa had a one-on-one talk with Binay recently on the matter. As a result, HGC cancelled the auction because “we have been informed by the DoF that the said property is a major component of the infrastructure project of the DoTC and DPWH PP Partnership program…”

So now, the PNR air rights will revert to the national government and it will be left to DoTC/DPWH to work out the NLEX-SLEX road connector project. Manny Pangilinan’s unsolicited proposal for the project assumes the availability of the air rights.

On the airport congestion problem, I found it disheartening that Mar didn’t have the political will to deal with general aviation. It was a no-brainer. Even if the corporate big shots in their private planes are made to land in Lipa, they can easily get to the Metro Manila business districts by chopper.

Instead, Mar picks on the domestic airlines and threatened them with a mandatory curtailment of flights if they don’t do it on their own. I was surprised that Mar didn’t realize he is throwing cold water on investor enthusiasm on the country’s bullish economic prospects.

Between 2012 and 2021, Cebu Pacific will take delivery of 19 more Airbus A320 and 30 Airbus A321. Cebu Pacific also plans to lease up to eight A330-300s and offer services to Australia, the Middle East, parts of Europe and the USA.

Philippine Airlines and affiliate Air Phil Express plan to order new planes, resume flights to Europe and bolster US services at a capex of $1 billion. Even Zest Air is buying two more A320s.

As I pointed out last Wednesday, our airlines commit big money when they make long term plans like buying aircraft and have probably signed contracts with Airbus and Boeing that can only be cancelled or curtailed at a penalty. How can Mar, acting on behalf of this government, throw a surprise like that one?

Perhaps realizing the error of his ways, Mar subsequently tried to show he was not playing favorites in asking the big airline companies to sacrifice and let the general aviation people to go on business as usual. A CAAP source informed me that they have started to implement a kind of equal misery solution that will entail sacrifices from all sectors.

It must however be noted that these sacrifices are being demanded as a result of government incompetence that brought about the congestion problem to begin with.

Note that government has been constantly urging the private sector to invest and grow the economy. That’s what the airline sector did despite prevailing doubts. Now that they have invested and expanded, government through Mar threatened to curtail their services because government was not ready with the infrastructure to accommodate growth.

What kind of a deal is that? Even as the airlines have expressed support in public, they have expressed bewilderment in private. Other investors must now be thinking twice.

Anyway, in an e-mail to me, here is what CAAP said it will implement, something they should have done last year yet:

“The fish run operators of live seafood will operate out of Sangley during the congestion period of 7am to 4pm. Likewise, domestic flights will rationalize their schedule to move/adjust schedules to night rated airports. 14 more airports identified by the airlines will likewise be night rated in addition to the existing ones.

Flight schools will be out of NAIA by year end.

“Air taxi and corporate operators are allowed one departure and arrival per hour and in excess will be charged a premium rate with that of the Airbus since they are eating up the slot of a bigger capacity aircraft.

“Rapid exit taxiway will be constructed to clear the runway for aircraft on landing roll and MIAA will be declared a captain’s runway, meaning the more experienced senior pilot will man the controls so that they can easily exit the aircraft out of the active runway.”

Nothing was said about a vital piece of equipment our airport badly needs that guides planes in our air space as they fly through, take-off and land. One of the reasons planes have to circle around NAIA and why flights are always delayed with long lines of aircrafts waiting to take-off is because we don’t have a modern system for air traffic control.

As I wrote in a previous column based on an interview of the CAAP director general, we need to implement a modern communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system.

Our horse and buggy system needed upgrading a long time ago. I understand former DOTC Sec. Ping de Jesus reviewed the project and thought the costs were suspiciously on the high side. When Mar took over, he said he will study it again. And that’s where we are at the moment, 10 months after.

If and when Mar finally decides to give the go signal, the specs must be redesigned to handle the increased traffic. We needed that system like as of yesterday.

And while we are still talking about Mar, it would probably help if he changed his imperial management style. I was told by DoTC insiders that during the time of Ping de Jesus, he had an “open door” policy and any of his staff and even media reporters can go see him any time and talk to him. In the case of Mar, he has a screening platoon of secretaries and assistants and yes, he keeps his door closed.

I can’t believe Mr. Palengke is at heart, Imperial Mar who probably thinks because of pedigree, he is better than everyone else. So everything with him is just packaging. But based on my over 40 years experience in the communication field, packaging fails if the product fails to live up to the promise. That, I believe is the reason for disenchantment of former ardent supporters of Mar like myself. We have been had. So has the nation.

Weather weather lang

Robin Tong sent this one.

A young lad complained that he was always being poked at weddings by older people who’d tell him, “You’re next.”

He got even by doing the same thing to them at funerals.

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