24/7

For the past several days between 12:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., there have been no flights in or out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The reason: sections of the lone tarmac of the NAIA need to be repaved.

Because the work has to be rushed, leaving insufficient time for the pavement to dry, don’t expect durability in the repair work.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter for the NAIA tarmac to be closed for a few hours daily since Manila doesn’t get that much air traffic in the pre-dawn hours. But in the age of globalization, international airports are supposed to be in full operation around the clock, 24/7, with personnel of all government agencies required for flight processing working in shifts. I have landed in many airports overseas in the wee hours, and was impressed at how busy they were.

In our case, there is only one regular shift at the NAIA, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with lunch break. Working beyond those hours is overtime for Customs, immigration, health and quarantine personnel.

The overtime is paid not by our government but by private airlines, local and foreign. In addition, the private carriers must pay meal allowance and transportation, even if the employees reside only within spitting distance of the NAIA, to those working overtime.

Nowhere in the world is this done, so you can understand why we should perish the thought of the Philippines becoming an aviation hub like several of our Asian neighbors.

The government must be feeling smug about its savings from this unique arrangement. In 2008, the airlines shelled out about P400 million for overtime, meals and transportation of those government workers. Last year, the amount was estimated at P500 million to P600 million.

Coupled with the common carrier’s tax, which puts a financial burden on long-haul flights, you can see why foreign carriers are ending their long-haul direct flights to and from the Philippines. Who gets burdened? The Pinoy traveler, who must pay more for longer flying and waiting times that he doesn’t need. And which sectors suffer? Tourism in particular, plus all its downstream enterprises. It’s a safe bet that the loss in potential earnings for the nation is way higher than P600 million.

At about the same time that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines ended its direct flights between Manila and Europe last month, the last direct flight between Cebu and the Middle East - Qatar Airways’ three times weekly Cebu-Doha flight - ended on March 26.

Industry sources said the last straw for KLM was when its top man in the region went to Malacañang to discuss the carrier’s tax and was advised to meet with Transport and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas. When the KLM guy, accompanied by a Dutch diplomat, went to Roxas’ department, they were reportedly met by a lower ranking official, whose response could be summarized as “duh.”

If the government is seriously trying to attract more business and leisure travelers and making tourism a major revenue earner, it is going about it the wrong way.

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As I’ve written in the past, promoting tourism at this point needs the direct intercession of President Aquino himself. A chief conductor is needed, so that all the agencies and local government units concerned can support a comprehensive national tourism program.

P-Noy can’t simply drop in occasionally at the NAIA, and ooh and aah over some new gewgaw. We can’t even computerize the submission of each flight’s general declaration to cut arrival and departure processing time.

In April last year the Board of Airline Representatives (BAR) submitted to then Customs chief Angelito Alvarez a detailed sampling of what they described as cases of Customs harassment, affecting 10 foreign carriers. Worst hit were turnaround flights, which must leave the NAIA within 45 to 90 minutes. Many of the flights were delayed by 17 to 35 minutes over Customs issues.

Responding to a memo from Alvarez, Customs officials explained that several of the delays were “reasonable within the context of our operation.”

They also pointed out that they had been doing their job for 22 months despite the failure to collect full payment of their overtime pay.

Being an employee myself, I can understand why a worker will want proper compensation for work rendered. But it’s the nation that suffers from this dispute.

The dispute can end if the government shoulders the burden of paying its own workers. Alvarez tried, issuing Customs Administrative Order 7-201 in July 2011, to be forwarded to airport quarantine and immigration personnel. But Alvarez was replaced shortly afterwards.

The order mandated three regular work shifts at all international ports of entry, seven days a week, with only a nighttime differential to be paid. Only those who work beyond their designated shift gets overtime pay.

It’s called “24/7” and was endorsed last March 20 by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to new Customs chief Rufino Biazon, Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David and director Edgardo Sabitsana of the Bureau of Quarantine and International Surveillance.

Purisima asked the three officials to submit their proposed plantilla to the Department of Budget and Management “for the implementation of 24/7 shifts in international ports and airports.”

Asked for comment, Biazon tweeted early yesterday: “But the situation is that we still lack personnel to go full 24/7 and the budget for night differentials or OT is not yet avlble.” Give him an A for honesty.

Tourism chief Ramon Jimenez seemed more positive. His tweet: “We are very very aware of this decades-old CIQ problem. A decisive resolution shall be arrived at soon. We will do in short order what so many before us failed to act upon. I will reach out to airlines to give us just a bit more time. Powerful (not to mention, ruthless) syndicates are behind this.”

With such responses, you can understand if the airlines believe the government is simply jerking them around, and act accordingly, based on their interests.

Before more carriers leave the country, let’s hope it’s Jimenez’s assessment of the situation that prevails.

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VIRAL: Having just recently revived my amateur guitar-playing, I was thoroughly entertained by a video clip of Canadian indie pop band Walk Off the Earth’s cover of Belgian-Australian songwriter Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know” – a song I’ve been playing on my guitar. As of yesterday afternoon, the YouTube video, showing the five band members performing the song on one guitar, had been viewed 83,015,630 times. Their version is No. 1 in local charts. That’s the power of the Internet for you. And here we are, demanding flight general declarations on paper.