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In a development that should not have come as a surprise to anyone observing the Philippines’ now nearly three-year-long battle to raise its international air safety rating above the level it shares with countries like Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Cambodia, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) director Alfonso Cusi tendered his resignation to President Aquino earlier this week, being variously described as “giving up” on what had become a thankless and compromised position, or being forced out of it. Cusi is to be replaced by current CAAP OIC Ramon Gutierrez, a retired Philippine Air Force Colonel.


Despite having done a reasonably good job in correcting a number of issues cited by the International Civil Aviation Organization that led to Philippine air carriers being blacklisted by both the US and EU, as an Arroyo appointee Cusi has been in the present Administration’s crosshairs since July, after declining to offer a courtesy resignation to the new President. Despite having taken his office — which comes with a fixed four-year term by the provisions of RA 9497, enacted into law during the legislative term of Senator Aquino — on March 8, two full days before the legal deadline for outgoing President Arroyo’s appointments, Cusi was routinely derided as one of her “midnight appointees.” Matters came to a head with the appointment to management positions in the CAAP by DOTC Chairman Ping De Jesus of three candidates “preferred” by Aquino, bypassing the CAAP Director and the prescribed selection and appointment process. In response to what they regarded as “politicization” of the agency, the ICAO last month informed the CAAP that a planned visit this month to reconsider the Philippines’ Category 2 rating would be postponed indefinitely.


What the ICAO will make of this will probably become clear within the next few weeks, but as far as the Office of the President is concerned, the obstacle to recertification is now on his way home to manage the family shipping business in Mindoro. “We welcome the resignation of Al Cusi. Now we can move faster in getting our country out of Category 2,” Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda was quoted as saying by the Manila Bulletin. But the most recent reservations expressed by the international body, whose guidance the FAA and the EU follow, were not about Cusi but about the competence of recent appointees, and the questionable administrative structure that put them into their positions. Taking the most optimistic view, it could be hoped the ICAO will look at Cusi’s resignation as ‘calming the political waters’ of the CAAP and in that sense helping to depoliticize the agency; the fact that Gutierrez is more or less an internal promotion might seem to support that point of view. If that’s the case, a category upgrade might be seen in the near future, something that would be a blessing to a faltering tourism sector and an Administration that badly needs at least one political win.


The various opinions expressed by the ICAO since the Philippines was first downgraded back in 2008, however, tend to suggest that the international agency won’t be so easily won over; Cusi’s resignation, after all, does not specifically address their most recent concerns, and in fact might be regarded as a sign that politicization of the national regulatory framework is actually deepening. The poor record of the present Administration in the identifying and recruiting of technocrats is also a cause for worry; after all, the entire issue with the Philippines’ air sector as far as the rest of the world is concerned is not one of proper facilities or overall safety, but of appropriate expertise among those responsible for regulating and certifying Philippine pilots, air carriers, facilities management, and maintenance providers. However well Al Cusi might have worked with others or not, his qualifications for the job were sound, and every other indication was that he was making progress at the CAAP. The Administration might be congratulating themselves now for ridding themselves of yet another evil Arroyo thorn in their side, but something tells me there’s a better than even chance they’re going to regret it before the coming year is very old.

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