A better airport?

This refers to the column by Iris Gonzales on April 18, “A better airport.”

Ms. Gonzales tells of her latest experience at the NAIA 3, describing her experience at the Cebu Pacific terminal as like a dream wish granted.

Good for Ms. Gonzales. How about the rest of us ordinary mortals who continue to suffer from a NAIA that has already served its purpose and is ready to die?

NAIA is dying because of space problems. Congested better describes this aging airport, even if it has four terminals.

NAIA 4 or the domestic terminal is a nightmare, where warm bodies are packed like sardines. A common scene is backpackers making the floor their beds, many of them waiting for their delayed flights going to the provinces.

Specific to NAIA 3, Ms. Gonzales’ new heaven, one senior citizen returning to Los Angeles found his balikbayan box ripped open and many valuables missing when he retrieved it at LAX airport. He left Manila at 11 p.m. on April 9.

He did not complain about the immigration check. Being a regular traveler, he knows how gatekeepers behave. “They are just doing their job,” he said, adding that, for Filipinos, it is worse in immigration checks in first world countries.

At NAIA, crimes like theft happen because there is almost complete disorder due to overcrowding. Human trafficking happens because of congestion, when syndicates can freely move around unnoticed, lost in the sea of people.

Dream wishes could be granted if we get a new airport like the one being built in Bulacan. Only when the airport has that space offered by the Bulacan airport can we honestly claim that we are competitive.

Otherwise, the NAIA rating as globally competitive is a big lie. – Padjo A. Vadenor [email protected]