Congress-citizens’ lobby for a decent airport

Since I wrote Bedlam in the Airport I continue to receive letters asking if our government is so helpless it can’t open the modern, spanking new airport just a few meters away from the decrepit building that passes as an international airport. There may be difficult legal problems to untangle on NAIA 3 but these can take months, maybe years to resolve. In the meantime passengers ( most of them OFWs and their families) suffer daily the indignity and inconvenience of NAIA 1.

I sought out Airport GM, Eduardo Manda to find out why we are in this impossible mess.It seemed absurd why we cannot open more doors to avoid forming queues just to enter the airport. This is unheard of in any country. With an announcement that some P800 million will be spent to refurbish the decrepit building, I decided to visit the airport. GM Manda pointed out the problem areas and what the P800 million would be used for. Fine. But it would not solve the problem of its backwardness. Even if refurbished it will be an embarrassment to a country wishing to attract tourists and investors in a region of spankingly modern international airports.

Refurbishing may be well-intentioned but it will be an unnecessary expense – too little, too late – as the population grows to outflank the improvements.It is an inadequate response with complaints piling up each day. Remember the airport is a microcosm of the Filipino community here and abroad, not to count the foreign businessmen and visitors passing through its doors. Any effort to encourage tourism and investments will come to naught if we do not have a decent international airport. During our tour, NAIA officials pointed to me leaking roofs, dishevelled counters, peeling paint, cracked floors and personnel treating their place of work as if it were a private boudoir with washbags cheek by jowl with screeners. Palengke style. A toilet shown to me was clean and had been retiled but not up to the standards of other Asian countries’ airports. To be fair, refurbished toilets hide the much bigger problem underneath - an outdated sewerage system that can cost millions to put right. So why go through such an expense and come up with the same unkempt airport?. Why waste time and money to put it in GM Manda’s words patchi-patchi and make do with these facilities.

After that visit I am convinced the answer is to open NAIA 3. If the course of action were to refurbish it would take eight months to prepare the plans and god knows when it will be approved in our tortured bureaucracy. On the other hand, Manda says if the government were to take over NAIA 3 it could be operational in four months. Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo says it is inadequate and faulty. That’s the word of a lawyer. We want to hear from engineers. PIATCO says they want $1 billion if the government wants to take over. Meanwhile, more and more expensive lawyers are being brought in by both sides to find a legal breakthrough. The meeting of all parties is scheduled for mid-2005. This is intolerable.

Is there any way to break the impasse? There is but it needs extraordinary will from both the citizenry and the government. They should come together and stand behind – a national emergency act – so NAIA 3 can be immediately used. But the incoming President must be supported by Congress. The act must be underpinned by a strong citizens lobby in cooperation with members of Congress. This is what direct political relations between constituents and their representatives mean which is a natural in a parliamentary system but is often lost in the welter of presidential politics. My congressman is Rep. Ruffy Biazon and as his constituent I will ask him to stand on my behalf in this national effort. So will any citizen or user of the airport and their corresponding representative. Only then can we have a strong lobby.

Instead of cursing the wind, citizens can begin to do something to force the government to open NAIA 3. It goes without saying that PIATCO, Fraport and all the other investors should be compensated as part of the solution.The Chengs should be an active partner in this national endeavor. The elder Cheng is said to be peeved and wants to defend his honor. What could be more fitting if he actively sought the opening of NAIA 3? It would be his crowning glory if he did not treat it merely in dollars and cents but as a lasting legacy to the Filipino nation.

Your masa, my masa. Ross Tipon writes that ‘nobody owns the masa’ and answers why FPJ lost. He says the word "masa" was invented by the leftists during the 70s. It is a rough version of Marx’s "lumpen-proletariat". They thought they owned the masa but they were wrong. Marcos successfully exploited the masa during his dictatorship.FPJ, like Erap, thought he owned the masa but he was wrong. He fared well in the "E-Class" of Northern Luzon (except the Cordillera Region), Central Luzon (except the Pampango-speaking areas) and southern Tagalog (except Cavite, which native-son Lacson snatched). More strikingly, he did not get the National Capital Region masa, which went for the incumbent president. GMA got all the masa elsewhere, except for Bicol, which went for native son Roco. The Muslim masa were even for the two top contenders. He explains: Poe’s masa comes via his movies. But he was "laos na". San Miguel beer dropped his pseudo-heroic TV ads years ago. He may have enjoyed an afterglow with the Tagalog-speaking masa. The Ilocano masa also went for Poe because of the Marcoses. Visayan masa is not impressed by Poe. In Cebu there is a natural aversion for the imposition of Tagalog as the "national language". There are actually more Filipinos who list Cebuano as their mother tongue than Tagalog. The Igorot masa (small in relation to the national vote) went overwhelmingly for GMA. Like Cebuanos, Igorots prefer English to Tagalog when talking to non-Ilocanos and non-Igorots.

It is a half-truth that Erap was elected because of the masa. He successfully projected himself as an experienced leader (mayor of San Juan, senator and vice president) whilst Poe relied entirely on his box-office standing. Erap acted like a traditional politician tying up alliances here and there. He gave way to Danding when he accepted to be vice-president under him.

The INC is supposed to be a masa cult, which blindly follows demigod Eraño Manalo. But in the SWS exit polls one in four disregarded his order. INC may be a masa cult but this is changing. INC members are hard-working and disciplined, not loafers and pan-handlers like other masa. Some have moved upward – owning shops, engaging in business, and have become competent professionals and civil servants. Manalo has less magic to them. He spoke to two middle aged women who said: "We listen to our leader…but in voting we follow our individual conscience."

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