Senators urged to keep off 'open skies' controversy

Sen. John Osmeña urged his colleagues yesterday to keep off the raging controversy on the so-called "open skies" policy.

He made the appeal in the wake of the threat of Sen. Joker Arroyo, who chairs a finance subcommittee, to freeze the nearly P10 billion 2004 budget of the Department of Transportation and Communications unless Secretary Leandro Mendoza removes Alberto Lim as a member of the Civil Aeronautics Board.

Arroyo suspects that Lim is working for the Accelerating Growth, Investment and Liberalization with Equity (Agile) group, which advocates the opening up of the country to foreigners, including air transportation. Agile is funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

Osmeña said the open skies row is actually a fight between huge US airline companies and Filipino-Chinese business tycoon Lucio Tan, who controls the flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL).

"Lucio Tan is against the open skies policy as it would subject PAL to greater competition from foreign airlines. It’s between Tan and the Americans, so we in the Senate should not get involved. We should focus instead on the policy that will bring in more tourists, particularly to Cebu (Osmeña’s home province)," he said.

He said the government should resolve the open skies controversy on the basis of what would be good for the greater number of Filipinos.

Commenting on Osmeña’s appeal, Arroyo said "Lucio Tan is not the problem."

"The problem is mendicancy. Let me ask the questions. What is wrong with re-examining and re-negotiating an iniquitous 1982 Marcos-US dictated air agreement which was never enforced? So that Philippine carriers will be protected. The problem is that some jaundiced people cannot put national interest above hostility to certain persons," Arroyo said.

He said Philippine carriers won’t be able to compete with US airlines, which receive tens of billions of dollars in American government subsidy due to financial troubles.

"The Philippine government does not and have never subsidized Philippine carriers when they flounder," he added.

Arroyo pointed out that the 1982 air pact was never enforced until this year, when the US proposed that it be followed.

"After 21 years, the US wants the agreement enforced because it now has a partial need for it," he said.

He likened the American proposal to carry out the agreement to the entry of the Philippines in the World Trade Organization and the opening up of its markets to foreign products.

"Result: disaster!" he said.

Arroyo and some colleagues, including Senators Ralph Recto and Vicente Sotto III, want the Arroyo administration to reconsider its policy of opening the nation’s skies to foreign carriers, saying it would kill the local airline industry and render thousands of Filipinos jobless.

They have urged Malacañang to submit the 1982 RP-US Air Transport Agreement to the Senate for ratification. — Jess Diaz