Public concern on NAIA 3 mounts

This column is not about which side is right in the legal battle on NAIA 3. For me, that conflict is the heart of the problem but it is also what works against the public interest. A legal battle is a protracted and expensive affair. If I did not study the legal arguments, it is not the perspective I wish to see it from. I do not wish to be trammeled by legal arguments for and against opening the airport. The thrust of my article and advocacy has to do with the suffering paying public, who are the ultimate end-users of the airport. They should not be made hapless spectators while the legal battle on who would own and operate the airport goes on. By writing on the matter, I hope for a strong citizens lobby that would address the issue from a neutral perspective while the differences are threshed out between the contenders. Is that possible? I believe it is.

The problems of NAIA 1 are not just about queues although these are the most visible and most aggravating to the public. It is about totally unacceptable conditions in an aging airport whose problems will not be solved by spending yet another P800 million or as someone remarked, paying good money after bad. It was also Airport GM Edgardo Manda’s opinion. I believe him when he says refurbishing may take about eight months to plan and heaven knows how long to implement. I do not presume to know better.

Nor are the queues about added security measures as I had mentioned in the column "Bedlam in the Airport". Taking off one’s shoes is the only added security measure, (this was done at random) and took only a few seconds. The long queues had to do with lack of entrances and the antiquated structure of the building. There may be queues in other airports but these do not happen before one enters the airport. Other airports in the region - Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China – our competitors for tourism and investments have airport services far superior to ours. Some one will have to take responsibility for this shameful anomaly.

A citizens’ lobby to open NAIA 3 means only that – to empower citizens to receive a public service they pay for and not be a victim of vested interests. So far, there are no answers. As far as the legal battle is concerned, it can go on indefinitely. And that is exactly what the public does not need. It needs solutions and it should not necessarily compromise the rightness of wrongness of the contending parties according to law. A way must be found and I must add yet again it should be detached and non-confrontational. One would expect that the government, especially lawmakers, should be about helping airport users, in particular and the country, in general.

NAIA 3 should be made an issue of public service. That it is not treated as such is a microcosm of the economic difficulties of the country. It is the intimate link between politics and business that has been the bane of our economy and we need to break it. "In national politics, the key problem is the prevalent public cynicism about the way it is carried on - given its excessive partisanship, its policy gridlocks and its intimate link with business liand the economy," says Gen. Almonte, who was President Ramos’ national security adviser. It is hypocritical when Filipinos claim "the private sector is our engine of growth but that engine is all too often fueled not by market forces but by political power." It is not anything new. It is a problem which goes back to the Spanish period when politically powerful families used public authority for ttheir private benefit.

He adds that the partnership between oligarchs and high politicans "increase" the costs of doing business, caused promising industries to fail and scared away foreign investors." He is right that it is time we put an end to this perverse relationship which is the mother of all our problems and at bottom responsible for our endemic problems of rent-seeking and crony capitalism.

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A Frenchman who cares about the Philippines and his new book, Filipina. Supply Oil Servi Inc.(SOS) Chairman, Louis Paul Heussaf is the longest staying expatriate in the energy sector in the Philippines. He has made the country his home for more than 20 years. But it is not just about giving logistical support to the country’s oil industry that occupies him. He wants more people to know about the country including some Filipinos the good they possess. His first book was Philippines: Archipelago of Smiles which he published in 1998 in time for the Philippine Centennial. Incidentally it was also SOS Inc’s 20th anniversary. Today he has published a second book Filipina – A Tribute to the Filipino Woman which is a collection of portraits and photographs of women in their natural environment reflecting their wide cultural diversity.

Filipina, he says is simply a tribute not only to beauty but the values and strength in character of nanays, lolas, ates and all other Filipinas around the world. He had the full support of The Embassy of France. The night the book was launched Ambassador Renee Veyret was busy going around to greet the many guests as well as the French community. This beautiful book shows the best in photography, a selection of entries culled from some 1,600 hundred entries in a contest plus pictures from famous photographers, among them, George Tapan.

"We hope that readers will admire the Filipina in these pages. Her true beauty shines through – her elegance, her whimsical charm and her quiet strength. Without a doubt, the Filipina is the best asset of the Philippines" he writes.

At the launch, a very surprised, Frank Sionil Jose was escorted to the stage with the background of a triumphant march.. Only the French, who respect art and talent, would so honor a writer and national artist. He was surprised but, the writer said to the audience, "I love it." In his foreword, F. Sionil Jose asks that "we look closely at the faces of our women in these pages, young and old, peasant and aristocrat. In spite of the turbulence of our times, the banality of our politics and the intransigence of our leaders, despair does not limn their eyes. Hope and joy reside in them, for these are Filipinas who will prevail, whose unhappy country will yet be redeemed by them."

It is not the run-of-the-mill book on Filipino women. The Heusaff book uses both known and unknown women, beautifully photographed, to symbolize a woman’s virtues. The book forces our attention on the virtues, admittedly sometimes disproportionately possessed by Filipino women. But rather than focus on the women themselves, the book’s photographic excellence, draws out – elegance, determination, compassion, sensibility, dignity and humanity. The title Filipina – A Tribute to the Filipino Woman is delightfully incidental.

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