Senate finds DOT-SIA deal 'beneficial'

The Senate foreign relations committee chaired by Sen. Francisco Tatad has found the Department of Tourism (DOT) agreement with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to be simply a promotional agreement to create awareness of the Philippines as a tourist destination.

"The agreement is similar to those signed by SIA with the Ministry of Indonesia and the Australian Tourism cooperation, and has nothing to do with increasing air access or designating which airline should bring tourists to the Philippines. The agreement neither involves any cash donation from SIA nor cash expenditure by the DOT," the committee said.

The hearing was conducted in the wake of recent complaints by the Gabay Foundation that the agreement gave SIA several concessions which were allegedly disadvantageous to the Philippines and its national carrier.

"The agreement is not at all disadvantageous to the Philippines," the committee said.

Present during the hearing were representatives of DOT, Philippine Airlines (PAL), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA), and Freedom to Fly Coalition.

The CAB said the agreement could not possibly increase air access to the country as alleged by the Gabay Foundation because "air access is forged in a government-to-government air service agreement (ASA), which is the sole prerogative of aviation authorities of the Philippines and Singapore."

The last RP-Singapore capacity increase was made in 1994.

Members of the PTAA said the agreement would bring in more tourist arrivals and generate more jobs.

"We would even like to see similar agreements forged with international airlines like Air France, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific and others," one representative of the group said.

SIA general manager Tang Tuck Wah presented samples of SIA's promotional activities, including feature articles on Quiapo, Davao, Cebu and Boracay which appeared in SIA's inflight magazine. Also presented were articles on Philippine tourist spots which appeared in Greek, Danish, Belgian and French newspapers.

SIA recently brought to Manila a European TV crew to film a documentary on Subic, the Banaue Rice Terraces, Puerto Galera and a resort in Palawan.

Earlier, SIA's sister airline, Silk Air, arranged to ferry 20 travel agents from Singapore to Cebu to experience the tourism potential of Cebu and nearby Bohol.

During the hearing, DFA Undersecretary Aurora Tolentino said there was a breach of protocol in the agreement since there was no DFA representative present during its signing in 1999.

However, the DOT pointed out that an invitation to the DFA had been sent and received.

PAL's representative said they did not know nor do they have a copy of the DOT-SIA agreement but quickly corrected their statement when a representative of the PTAA said the national carrier had issued a press release claiming the DOT had fallen into a trap for signing the agreement.