Don't make promises to P-Noy

One thing people in this administration are learning is never make promises to P-Noy that you can’t keep.

When President Noynoy Aquino appointed Ramon Gutierrez as chief of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines or CAAP, P-Noy gave Gutierrez his full support.

Airport and Malacanang sources told me that when Gutierrez informed the President of what and how much was needed to get the category 1 rating, P-Noy asked no questions and approved his request with a very clear statement: “make sure it gets done.” A year or so after that meeting, all of the efforts amounted to nothing.

For failure to keep his promise, Gutierrez, was promptly and unceremoniously replaced by the retired former Air Force chief William Hotchkiss. I don’t know if DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas was even consulted about the abrupt change in leadership, but it seems that the President was in no mood to prolong the matter.

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Personally, I admire P-Noy for being decisive on the matter. Improving our FAA status is an urgent requirement that seriously affects our aviation and tourism industry, costing the Philippines billions in lost revenues. So if people can’t deliver on their promise they should step aside and let other people try.

On the other hand, we have to be fair to Ramon Gutierrez as well as his predecessor Alfonso Cusi who also tried his best to restore our category 1 rating during the Arroyo administration. Both men tried to improve industry standards, but the problem is not simple and cheap. To begin with Category 1 problem is too big and too serious to be left in the hands of a small agency such as the CAAP.

The matter, I am told, involves many things covering business and political concerns as well as a large geographical area from the European Union, the United States and the Philippines. One senior airline executive told me that some American aircraft manufacturers are pissed because British companies have the advantage in supplying airplanes to the Philippines. Several EU legacy airlines are pissed because they were being slapped unreasonable and protectionist taxes while Philippine carriers were exempted from the same tax and don’t pay such a tax abroad.

In the end, the CAAP is too small, with very little budget, little manpower and little clout to be talking to Philippine, US, EU officials simultaneously as well as micro manage system improvements on the ground. Gutierrez and Cusi may have been foolhardy Boy Scouts who mistakenly thought that the CAAP was big enough to do the job.

Considering all the necessary and immediate improvements that need to be done, as well as all the back-door deals and compromises, President Noynoy would do better by prioritizing the problem and putting up a “crisis committee” that would include airline executives, aviation authorities, Congressional representatives and all the cabinet secretaries concerned, with P-Noy himself taking responsibility to get the job done. Yes we need a “Crisis Committee” because the country is bleeding in terms of monetary loss and lost opportunities in terms of tourism and airline seats.

Our airline industry cannot expand their operations to Europe and the Middle East and the United States because of this state of affairs. So in the mean time European carriers are eating up hard earned cash from our OFWs who can’t fly Philippine carriers. That also means several hundreds if not thousands of jobs that are not there for Filipinos to fill. European and American tourists are restricted or discouraged from flying local airlines for regional and domestic tours which in turn seriously reduces the arrivals of tour groups that used to come in droves out of Japan, France, the US, etc.

So in the end we learn we know not to make promises to the President you can’t keep. Second, make sure you know the difference between kid stuff and a man sized job, and third, if you want things done — do it yourself.

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For as long as I can remember, there has been a ban (official or otherwise) on foreigners going to “hot spots” such as Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. If I remember correctly, the PNP has repeatedly warned foreigners as well as members of the media from going to such hot spots because of the strong possibility of kidnapping.

So how is it possible that Baker Atyani of the Al Arabiya News Network simply disappear in the jungles of Sulu?

After three or four days of worry and bad press and everybody thinking he was kidnapped, we now have reason to believe that Atyani intentionally hooked up with terrorists. Unfortunately, those three or four days once again put a damper on all our efforts to promote our country as “More FUN in the Philippines.”

Malacanang and Congress should pass an EO or a law that criminalizes intentional disregard of such safety or travel advisories issued by the PNP or any LGU for that matter. The government has to make it clear that they will not tolerate any interaction or cooperation with any terrorist or criminal group.  

That may intentionally or unintentionally give such criminal groups any form of publicity.

I don’t agree that we should simply blacklist Atyani and kick him out. We should give him the royal pain in the ass treatment.

For starters, the PNP and the military should begin by giving him a two-week debriefing with intelligence personnel, then a few days with the Department of Labor concerning his locally hired personnel who were placed in grave danger, and then the Bureau of Immigration should give him a seminar, perhaps even check if he has a working visa. If he was willing to spend days in the jungles, I’m sure he won’t mind several weeks in air-conditioned interrogation rooms.

I believe in freedom of the press but not at the risk of lives, waste of taxpayer’s money, and the ensuing bad publicity at the country’s expense.

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