At the 2nd Philippine Aviation Summit

I should have been in Manila last Wednesday for the 2nd Aviation Summit held at the Air Force Aerospace Museum in Villamor Air Base, but unfortunately a busy schedule always keeps us away from these important activities. However, I requested Philippine Aviation Society (PAS) president Danilo Francia to fill me in on what transpired in the aviation summit.

As Gen. Francia reported to me, the summit had a bevy of speakers. Mike Ramos, VP for FAI in the Philippines, gave a brief on the world of sports flying, which included the hosting of two international events on radio controlled flying in Cebu and then at the old Bacolod Airport. While we got this summary from Gen. Francia… all the comments are totally mine.

Ben-Hur Gomez of Omni Aviation based in Clark bewailed the little attention to general aviation and I can only concur with him that general aviation should be given importance because we are an archipelagic country where our tourism industry could flourish faster if general aviation was given some kind of importance.

Lt. Gen. Oscar Rabena of the Philippine Air Force gave the audience the history of military aviation and its contribution to civil aviation. His strategy is to partner with civil aviation, which shares a common interest for the general welfare of Philippine aviation. Indeed, with the PAF seriously lacking in planes, frustrated pilots would rather fly in the airlines and earn a hefty salary in lieu of flying for love of country. This is why we lament the fact that the PAF is but a shadow of its old self. Gone were the days when we had front-line jet fighters like the F-5 Freedom Fighter. Back in the 50s the PAF had a squadron of P-51 Mustangs! It was a time when we really had more planes than pilots to fly them.

Perhaps the most awaited speaker was Transportation and Communications Secretary Ping de Jesus, who unfortunately was too busy to grace this summit due to an economic meeting in Malacañang. Hence, his speech was read for him by Undersecretary for Air and Rail Glicerio Sicat, a copy of which was e-mailed to me. Let me just reprint its most important part.

 “This brings me to our goal of Category 1 for Philippine aviation. Our downgrading to Category 2 has limited our carriers’ access to international airports, thus freezing the growth and expansion of Philippine aviation. Specifically, our Category 2 status limits our Philippine carriers’ route expansion plans in the United States and, worse bars them from landing on any European airport. The good news is that, we are now taking bold steps to get us back to Category 1. We have already addressed the two remaining criteria that will restore our Category 1 status.

“We are in touch with the International Civil Aviation Organization – or ICAO, which is closely monitoring our progress in this area. One, we have already appointed the key aviation personnel to man key posts at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). This fulfills the requirement to buttress our aviation leadership with known experts in the sector. The new leaders will then put together the best inspectorate team available to inspect aircraft and test pilots.” 

Nice speech, but as many pundits would say, “Talk is cheap!” Until now, there is still some mystery surrounding the sudden resignation of CAAP’s Al Cusi and unfortunately, I’ve tried calling his cell phone and could not get through. I heard that he wasn’t happy that the new CAAP directors were in the dark about how to resolve our return to Category 2. In short, the Aquino administration’s penchant for replacing people who worked under the previous administration literally resulted in a situation of our changing horses in mid-stream. Hence this would take much longer now.

The last time I talked with Al Cusi a few months ago, he already had a firm schedule when the Philippines would be returned to Category 1 status. Alas, in his speech (prior to the reading of the speech of the DOTC secretary by Usec Glicerio Sicat) the replacement of Al Cusi, CAAP director general Mon Gutierrez, only made promises to complete all the staffing requirements of the CAAP and to improve the regulations, processes and protocols in preparation for the ICAO audit this coming June. This guy sounds like a politician making promises, while Philippine aviation has to wait for the CAAP.

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III wants to embark on his partial “open skies” policy, an idea sold to him by Tourism Secretary Bertie Lim. But what good is open skies when the reality on the ground is, thanks to our category downgrade, our airlines cannot even fly to the places they want to fly. In the end, we cannot implement this open skies policy, partial or not, for as long as the CAAP dilly-dallies because its executives are still on-the-job training.

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