There’s money for airports, but none for radars?
There’s been a lot of discussion about the recent downgrading from Category 1 to Category 2 by the US Federal Aviation Administration of Philippine airports, all centered on the fact that this could affect the tremendous strides we have made in the past two years, especially in the tourism industry. But the biggest howl is coming from Philippine Airlines (PAL), which stands to lose passenger traffic if the situation is not remedied pronto.
True to form, the Philippine government is taking the usual knee-jerk reaction to this mess pointing fingers at the Air Transportation Office (ATO) which is under the wing of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). Already, ATO officer-in-charge Daniel Dimaguiba became the instant fall guy, as if this mess could be blamed directly on him. In truth, there’s more to this problem of downgrading of Philippine aviation than just the usual government inefficiency or bureaucracy.
I have long known the top officials of the ATO up to its last head, my good friend Nilo Jatico (whose resignation was accepted six months ago), and have learned enough about their never-ending problems. The truth of the matter is, like all problems (like what is happening with education) that face our present centralized form of government, the budget of the ATO is too small, and it cannot hope to afford the recent upgrades that international aviation requires today and it needs a lot of funding these days.
For instance, ATO’s capability to check our pilots is hampered by the lack of a flyable airplane. The ATO’s King Air needs a new engine and there’s simply no money for it. Without the use of the King Air, ATO cannot hope to check our pilots periodically. Without those rigorous pilot checks, it is only natural for the FAA to sound the alarm bells for the government to respond, but then we always have a reactionary government that moves only when the die is cast. This is why we’re in this mess right now. This is not to mention that Filipinos are in great demand abroad, hence it is not easy to find check pilots who can work under the government’s present “standardization” pay scale, which doesn’t allow pilots to be given the proper salaries.
Then there’s the matter of upgrading radar and other navigation systems, which should have been done long ago, but there’s even no money to maintain the old ones. This is one of the casualties when the Americans left their bases in
So why is the ATO’s budget not enough? I gathered that one of the reasons for the lack of money is that many congressmen are asking the ATO to build new airports in their respective districts and worse, these congressmen just don’t want ordinary airports, but want the tag “international” to go with them, even if no international flights come or go to their airports. Call it a status symbol if you wish or plain “humbug,” but at the end of the day, there are no monies for radars and other vital navigation equipment as these funds are used to build the new status symbol airports.
How did congressmen allow this situation to happen? Simply whenever the budget for the ATO comes around, these congressmen “whisper” to the ATO their “desire” to build new airports so that the ATO budget would move smoothly. How do we know this? Just look at all the plans for new airports in ATO’s planning department and you’ll know what I mean. But there’s more to the ATO’s troubles than just building airports.
If you checked the terminal fees of most airports, like for instance the one at the Caticlan airport across Boracay, they only exact a P20 terminal fee, which without a doubt is not enough to even fix the toilets in what is supposed to be a premier tourist destination. Even the
Let me point out that we had the same problem a long time ago when the
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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday,
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