Red tape at Macapagal Airport ordered cut

Call her a hands-on President.

President Arroyo yesterday said she had to personally step into a bureaucratic detail to cut the red tape that has stymied the commercial operations of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark Field, Pampanga.

The President vowed to use DMIA as the entry point into Central and Northern Luzon for the government’s tourism campaign.

To get this done, the President said, she called Transport and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza up over the matter. "There was red tape, so I called up Larry Mendoza. ‘Larry, cut this red tape so that these international air flights at (DMIA) can finally come.’"

The President said she had to act quickly on these problems after she found out that the ceremonial landing of Aseana Airlines at the DMIA scheduled for Sept. 26, the late President Diosdado Macapagal’s birthday, did not push through as planned.

"Actually, we already have the airport, but we need to offer this to the airlines. So we have improved our radar system (and) the luggage carousel so the tourists won’t be inconvenienced," the President said.

The President was supposed to attend the ceremonial landing at DMIA last month, but she had to cancel that item of her schedule to speak at the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City.

Speaking extemporaneously at the launching of the Christmas lantern at Paskuhan Village in Pampanga, Mrs. Arroyo explained the delay in the opening of DMIA’s international flight operations.

"I thought that it was on the birthday of my father, when I was not there (at Clark Field) but at the UN (headquarters in New York), that you would see the first international airline, Aseana, land at DMIA, she said.

"When I got back, Aseana had not yet arrived. I learned later that there was an objection at the Civil Aeronautics Board (over the decision) to allow (Aseana) to land in Clark," she added.

Such quick action on her part, the President said, as exemplified by her action over the Aseana flap show how her experience in office over the last two and a half years has served her well.

"That’s the result of experience because, in our country where the republic is still young, the good policy you say must be implemented down the line. This is one thing that must be learned to get the so-called cooperation of the bureaucracy."

"We need to study the experience," she said. "These things are being prepared not just at a moment’s notice."

The President said she counts on her provincemates to help her win in the May 2004 elections so she can carry on with the government projects and programs she began in 2001, when she took over the reins of government. — Marichu Villanueva