more bs!!! he calls his incompetence blessing in disguise!! he was part of the commitee who met the faa officials yet he is washing his hands.
huge embarassment is the proper term.
Palace under fire over airports downgrade
MANILA, Philippines -- Senators and travel agencies were up in arms Wednesday over the Arroyo administration’s failure to address safety concerns in the country’s airports that led to a critical ratings downgrade from the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
Sen. Joker Arroyo said Malacañang should have placed its money where its mouth was by investing more to improve airport facilities, noting that only a measly P577 million or $12.5 million had been allocated for navigational and safety equipment.
He said that both the Air Transportation Office (ATO) and the Department of Transportation and Communications had known as early as October that the country would be downgraded but had done nothing.
“They stampeded Congress to pass the Civil Aviation Authority Act with practically no debate as they warned us about the downgrade. Still, FAA downgraded us. That is the picture, that is the sad result,” said Arroyo.
Senators have warned about the ill timing of the downgrade especially with the national flag carrier just emerging out of a financial rehabilitation and its competitor scheduled to go the equities market to raise new capital for expansion.
Sen. Manuel Roxas II filed a resolution calling for an inquiry in aid of legislation to make sure that “corrective measures are put in place to improve the state of our national and domestic airports.”
“In fact during the debates before we went on recess, we were told that if we pass this bill, there would no longer be downgrades,” Roxas said.
“Either we were being fooled by the executive branch or they really don’t know the situation,” Roxas told reporters.
The Senate passed the law creating the CAA as the overall agency in charge of civil aviation safety shortly before it went on recess last December.
Roxas, chair of the Senate committee on trade and commerce, said that aviation officials then had made no mention of the FAA concerns.
It turned out, said Roxas, that the ATO had received the FAA advisory in July last year urging the ATO to take steps to improve the quality of airports nationwide.
‘Huge embarrassment’
Roxas vowed to find out which agencies “dropped the ball,” saying the downgrade was a “huge embarrassment.”
He also pointed out that during the budget deliberations, not one aviation official asked for additional funding nor for amendments in the law to address the country’s aviation problems.
Roxas said the FAA downgrade had serious implications on the country’s travel, tourism and investments prospects not only from the United States but from most other countries as well.
The Philippine Travel Agencies Association also called for a Senate inquiry.
“Somebody must have taken it easy along the way, otherwise the situation would not have deteriorated like this. The government should address this and not only by trying to meet the standards now that it is too late. It should determine what went wrong and what changes have to be made,” PTAA president Jose C. Clemente III told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.
Temporary setback
At a press conference, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye and Rep. Monico Puentevella, chair of the House committee on transportation, said that the law creating the CAA could be enacted by next month after it is approved by the bicameral committee.
Puentevella said the approval of the bill by Congress, and its signing into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, would win back for the local civil aviation the Category 1 rating that was downgraded by FAA to Category 2. (are you sure?!)
But the system and other security upgrade of 84 ATO-supervised national airports in the country can take sometime, they said. There are also three international airports -- Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Mactan and Diosdado Macapagal -- with their own management authority.
Puentevella, a member of the panel that negotiated with FAA officials who visited the Philippines last December, said the Category 2 downgrade was just a “temporary setback” that would not affect the economy and existing operations of Philippine carriers.
“Hopefully, before yearend we would be elevated back to Category 1 ... Hopefully, before Christmas (2008),” he said.
He acknowledged that the downgrade would prohibit Philippine carriers from expanding operations in the US.
No effect on passengers
Puentevella also said that the US move had no effect on Philippine airline passengers entering the United States, ruling out any additional immigration and security checks to be imposed on Filipinos.
With the Category 2 rating along with countries such as Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia, Philippine carriers can continue flying to the United States but only “under heightened FAA surveillance,” said a US Embassy statement.
The embassy also advised US citizens flying to and from the Philippines to use carriers from countries that meet international aviation standards.
Blessing in disguise
Puentevella said that the passage of the law would give the new CAA fiscal autonomy to use the ATO’s income of some P3 billion a year and upgrade facilities.
He said the downgrade was a “blessing in disguise” because the country could have an opportunity to improve the airports’ safety and maintenance systems.
(ang galing mo congressman)