CAAP workers protest hiring of consultants

MANILA, Philippines - The workers’ union of the newly created Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the agency from appoint newly-hired consultants and outsiders into plantilla positions supposed to be given to former employees of the Air Transportation Office (ATO).

In a 52-page petition filed by the CAAP Employees Union with the High Tribunal last Nov. 25, the group asked that a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction be issued by the court against the implementation of rules governing the qualifications and requirements for people to be appointed into CAAP positions.

Cesar Lucero, CAAP-EU vice president accused CAAP director general Ruben Ciron of allegedly appointing fellow retired military officers into the agency’s key posts at the expense of former employees of the ATO, the forerunner of the CAAP.

In an interview with The STAR, Lucero said the implementing rules and regulations issued by Ciron did not comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9497, enacted last 2008, that created the CAAP from the nucleus of the defunct ATO.

“RA 9497 provided that ATO employees will be absorbed into the CAAP. However, the IRR issued by Ciron were written in such a way that outsiders or non-ATO ‘organic’ employees can be appointed in the new agency,” he said.

The CAAP-EU alleged that Ciron has appointed numerous retired military generals into key positions despite their lack of expertise and qualifications.

Making matters worse, Lucero said that to make up for the outsiders’ lack of expertise in civil aviation matters, Ciron made “ATO employees… train people who want to take their positions in the CAAP away from them.”

Lucero said among Ciron’s “questionable” appoints are CAAP deputy director general for administration Redentor “Red” Kapunan, a retired colonel and member of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement; retired colonel Eduardo Batac, also a member of RAM, who is currently the director of the CAAP’s highly-technical Flight Standards Inspectorate Service; and retired major general Romeo Alamillo, who was appointed assistant director of the FSIS.

The STAR tried but failed to contact Ciron.   – Rainier Allan Ronda