Now it's a limited open skies for DOTC!

Last Monday’s headlines in The STAR blared, “Heavy rains until 2012”, which brings me to a related story in the Nation Page also on Monday entitled, “ Isabela Gov clears Magat Dam in flooding”. I’m glad that Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III cleared the Magat Dam for the continued flooding because they should not really be blamed for this. The problem with us Filipinos is we are a bunch of faultfinders, blaming the release of excess water by the Magat Dam as the reason for the flooding, rather than admitting the reality that global warming has melted the ice caps in both the North and South poles, which has caused more rains to drop in Asia.

That means the administration of President Aquino has its work cut out for them. First is to de-silt many of our heavily silted rivers. Second is to bite the proverbial bullet and move people living in the low areas to higher ground... or if not, rebuild their homes by adding stilts so when the flood waters come, their homes won’t be inundated. Finally, the Aquino government must come up with a comprehensive approach that includes the local government units (LGUs) on how to solve their flooding problem permanently, rather than have a band-aid approach in solving them. Honestly, I don’t want to be in P-Noy’s shoes at this time.

Finally, let me end this part with a story from a dear friend, Fr. Mario Bije, SVD whom we had lunch with in my sister Adela A. Kono’s residence last Monday. Fr. Mario told us this funny story, “God appeared before three men, one from South America, the other from South Africa and a Filipino. All they needed to know was when will their respective continents be free from poverty. For South America, God said, 20 years more...and the South American cried.

Then came the turn of the South African who asked God the same question . . . and God told him, 50 years more. Hearing that, the South African cried. Finally it was the turn of the Filipino to ask the same question, when will we get rid of our poverty in the Philippines? This time, it was God who cried!”

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I read with a keen interest and curiosity the column of my good friend and fellow STAR columnist Boo Chanco entitled “Mar Roxas Declares War on KKK”. Of course he did not mean, the Kaibigan, Kaklase, or the Kabarilan group and I especially like what Boo wrote and let me reprint that, “Mar Roxas supports limited open skies but not at the expense of local commercial airlines”. This is what I’ve been at odds with the former Tourism Secretary Alberto “Bertie” Lim, who has been espousing an Open Skies Policy in the last 20 years and finally, he got P-Noy to sign EO 29, with which many industry insiders are totally against.

To be honest I don’t exactly know whether Lim belonged to the Samar or the Balay Group, but certainly this statement from the DOTC chief is totally opposed to the open skies policy that was signed by P-Noy under the Department of Tourism (DoT). Now whether it would widen the fissure that already exists in the Cabinet remains to be seen. But it is very refreshing to hear the DOTC Secretary assuring the local commercial airlines that they will be protected from unfair foreign competition.

No doubt the DOTC statement needs some kind of clarification from the Rasputins in Malacañang, whether there has been a change in the Executive Order that the President signed. I just hope that they don’t fumble this time because it now seems that the Cabinet of P-Noy is not as cohesive as we thought it to be. But I’m happy that Sec. Mar Roxas has made this very clear to us, after all the open skies policy should not be under the DOT, but under the DOTC where bilateral agreements with airlines are arranged.

Meanwhile, allow me to comment on The STAR’s editorial last Monday entitled “Illegal Possession” as two administrative staffers from the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs namely, Joey Tecson and John Alarcon got involved in a vehicular accident and it was discovered that they were carrying a Russian made Kalashnikov or AK-47 licensed to their boss Ronaldo Llamas. While the two staffers were fired by Llamas because of this incident, the bottomline is, they were caught with a firearm that didn’t belong to them. But then, someone is telling us that under the Daang Matuwid principle, Malacañang insiders are just like in the past... above the law!

Llamas appeared on ANC anchored by Karen Davila who asked him, “Why he kept an AK-47?” Llamas replied, “It is the most powerful and affordable weapon”. Many pundits believe that Llamas who was once the former head of the leftist group Akbayan, is the Communist Party’s insider in Malacañang, after all Akbayan has been dubbed as one of the many allied front organizations of the CPP. Well, now his fellow leftists have dubbed him as one who has a “Bang-Bang” mentality instead of a “Wang-Wang” mentality.

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