Emergency powers for doing nothing?

Last year, Mindanao was plunged into darkness because of power outages due to a long and hot summer as its power generation sources relied much on hydro power. This was alleviated by an Aboitiz Power (AP) power barge, which we inspected when we rode our bikes to Nasipit for the big Bike convention. But in one year, the Aquino regime did nothing to fast track the power projects in Mindanao, but now P-Noy is toying with the idea of fixing the problem by asking Congress for emergency powers?

The Office of the President has already immense powers, yet they want more from Congress, just because they didn’t do what they should have done last year? Who was it who said, “Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely!” Does the President really need emergency powers or perhaps he is seeking what we already wrote in this corner “revolutionary powers,” which cost the job of the National Defense spokesman? P-Noy should have fixed the problem in Mindanao and things would have already eased. Another very important problem that he did not fix are the problems of the airline industry.

Last Monday as we already wrote some months back, Qatar Airways officially transferred its Cebu flight operations instead to Manila. As we pointed out already this only proves that the air policies under the Aquino regime has failed miserably… even if they readily adopted EO 29 which is officially called “Open Skies” policy as introduced by then former Department of Tourism (DoT) Secretary Alberto “Bertie” Lim, one of the pillars of the Freedom to Fly Coalition.

Quite coincidentally last Tuesday the Philippine STAR came up with an editorial dubbed “Last Flight Out” and since it is quite self-explanatory, allow me to reprint excerpts of that editorial in order to emphasize the need for the Aquino regime to stop “Noynoying” about this highly important issue that could spell trouble in our tourism industry. Here’s an excerpt of that editorial last Tuesday.

“With the travel season at its peak, the last direct flight between the Philippines and Europe flew out of Manila last Sunday. Air France-KLM stuck it out the longest among the European carriers, hoping that the Philippine government would change its mind about two taxes that airline companies see as discriminatory for those operating long-haul flights. But the government was unmoved.

In the next paragraph, the editorial says, “This means a loss of about 20,000 nights a year for at least one five star hotel in Metro Manila. The hotel could probably make up for the lost bookings if more travelers would come to the country. In this the government shouldn’t pin its hopes too much on European travelers. The Philippines security rating downgrade by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) only prevents the country’s own carriers from flying to Europe and several key cities in the United States, but also prevents Europeans from getting insurance coverage while travelling in the Philippines.” Clearly, the culprit here is the common carrier tax.

It was easy back then to blame this brouhaha to the previous occupant of Malacañang, but it is more than obvious to us that P-Noy has been “Noynoying” on this issue to the detriment of the tourism industry, no matter how the Department of Tourism (DoT) shouts to the world that “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” How can we brag to the foreign tourist that indeed it is more fun in the Philippines when they cannot even fly directly to our country?

Lest we have already forgotten, the Philippines are not the only country trying to entice foreign tourists. God knows how much the Thais have spent on their TV ads alone, not to mention the famous advertisement of Malaysia…Truly Asia. Their governments go out of their way to remove those very taxes that prevent foreign carries from flying to their places.

I especially liked the last part of that editorial which said, “Yesterday, AF-KLM announced it would push through with the end of its direct flights between Manila and Europe despite the approval on second reading by the House of Representatives of a bill lifting the common carrier tax. The flight to Europe, now with a stopover in Taipei, has also been moved to evening and dubbed “Good night, Manila, good morning Europe.” The government should hope it doesn’t turn into “Goodbye, Manila” for good.”

What can I say? The editorial speaks the truth and if Pres. PNoy refuses to move on this, he won’t be tagged as “Noynoying” on this issue, they’ll tag him with “AIDS…As If Doing Something” We may laugh at these name tagging, but believe me hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in the Tourism industry are not amused with what’s going on and if they don’t act quickly, will they again ask for emergency powers? I think not!

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