A bad year for Malaysian aviation
It's the end of the Year 2014 and it has been a very bad year for Malaysian aviation, especially in this Visit Malaysia Year. By now everyone knows that another Malaysian airliner, an AirAsia Flt. No. QZ8501 with 162 people onboard this Airbus A320-200 en route from Surabaya City to Singapore, has been officially declared as missing. This Airbus A-320-200 flew on foul weather and just 30 minutes into its flight, radio contact disappeared. As of late, Indonesian aviation authorities are still searching for the missing AirAsia jet, which they now believe lies at the bottom of the ocean.
Malaysia's aviation woes began last March 8 when Malaysian Airlines Flt. MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 15 countries, disappeared after it flew from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing.
It's been nine grueling months of air and sea search and so far, there has been no trace of MH370 despite an international search effort involving Australia, the US, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Even the Philippine Air Force sent a plane to help in the search but to no avail. So far, there have been no more leads in this aviation disaster nine months later and at a staggering cost for Malaysian Airlines of some US$ 52 million dollars.
As if the missing MH370 wasn't bad enough for Malaysian aviation. Then on July 17, another Malaysian Boeing 777-200ER Flt. MH17 with 15 crew members and 283 passengers went missing over Ukraine. MH17 flew from Amsterdam en route to Kuala Lumpur. Then as the news of the missing plane unfolded, its wreckage was found in a field not far from the City of Donetsk, Ukraine close to a housing subdivision, 50 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Call this flight unlucky that the plane flew over a disputed territory controlled by Pro-Russian separatists fighting to bring back Ukraine to the fold of the Russian Republic. From what we saw on Facebook, which the Pro-Russian separatist (allegedly) uploaded, there was a Buk surface-to-air missile carrier with one missing missile. That photo was immediately taken down as it was proof that Pro-Russian separatists brought down MH17.
Of course Russia blamed this crash to the Ukrainian government, but apparently the smoking gun points to the Pro-Russian separatists to whom the Russians gave their Buk mobile surface-to-air missile launcher. As of this time, the Dutch aviation authorities still have to publish the results of their investigation which is due in August 2015. I just hope that the Dutch authorities would not water down their report because we know too well what really is the truth in the downing of MH17.
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With the Year 2014 at its last throes, there is no doubt that most people hope and pray for a better year in 2015. But from all indications, the New Year 2015 doesn't promise any peace in the future. If at all, the best news for the Year 2014 was the unexpected dropping of the world oil prices to record lows of US $56 per barrel. This related to a huge drop in the pump prices of gasoline here in the Philippines. But unfortunately the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board only allowed a P1 reduction in the fares of passenger jeepneys. As for taxicabs, there has been no report of any fare adjustments from the LTFRB.
Unless the LTFRB officials wake up to the reality that low gasoline rates aren't here to stay, they must reduce fares for passenger jeepneys, buses and taxicabs, otherwise, 2015 will have angry and indignant people marching on the streets. This is even worse in Metro Manila where the fares of the Metro Rail Transit and the Light Rail Transit have been increased by as much as 50 to 80%. Their excuse? As Malacañang pointed out, this is due to the fact that MRT/LRT fares have been heavily subsidized by the people who live in the Visayas and Mindanao who do not have any mass transportation systems, except the jeepneys.
While this argument is valid, it is wrong timing to make those fare increases at this time. A gradual increase should be given in a phased basis. But only after the MRT operations are fully restored. Before, they used to have 70 cars servicing 1.2 million commuters daily. Today, they hardly have 40 cars that are serviceable. But the Aquino regime is on what we call a "damn-the-torpedoes" attitude and went on with the fare increases anyway.
This means the new year 2015 will be a turbulent year for Filipinos. Although there will be a moment's peace when Pope Francis comes to visit us by mid-January. I already heard that things would move faster after the visit of Pope Francis. As for the rest of this world, the ISIL scourge will go on in Syria and Iraq until full blown military operations would destroy this threat to world peace. So hang in there!
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