Speech of the privileged

Senator Grace Poe recently saw fit to make a privilege speech to point out the deficiencies of our Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the almost 3-hour wait that she may have experienced or what was reported to her by amigas or constituents. That has its good side and bad side.

The senator reportedly pointed out the combined inconvenience caused by X-ray luggage scans, security checks, delays or extended check-in time, waits at the Immigration counters and delays at the departure areas. Please tell us something new or something we don’t already know or have not experienced in the last 20 years or more.

The double X-rays are or were there because of international requirements for airport security. All the scanning and security checks are measures set by international aviation groups, particularly the United States government, before they consider and approve our airports as safe for their citizens to go through. We are not the only users of the NAIA terminals.

If the X-rays don’t work or are slow, please look at the mirror because legislators were the ones who decided how much money should be spent on airport maintenance compared to what MIAA requested. They don’t even have the correct budget to run air conditioners 24/7 or the budget for maintenance and non-emergency repairs.

If check-in is delayed or takes longer, this is the business end of reality where airlines lost so much money from all the travel bans and quarantine that the previous government imposed that forced airlines to cut back their personnel by as much as 60 percent. Incidentally, before the privilege speech, the issue was already being tackled by NAIA GM Cesar Chiong.

Perhaps instead of a privilege speech where nobody listens except reporters, it might have been more effective if the senator called the attention of the government media and the DepEd to launch a mass media educational program to teach Filipinos about traveling, airport check-ins, etc. so they don’t regularly unpack at counters trying to determine what to hand carry and what to leave behind, all the while delaying people in the queue!

As for the delays at Immigration, once again please look at the mirror because the delays are also due to under staffing which is partly due to budget cuts done by congressmen and senators. From what BI contacts repeatedly told me, they have to make do with a limited budget by cutting the numbers at the counter so they can have multiple shifts for multiple flights coming in at broken schedules.

Just to rub salt on this sore point of poor funding, the Bureau of Immigration still holds office in a dilapidated tiny 4-story building that is not designed for efficiency, is anti-senior and PWD. What about the digitalization of government services such as the Bureau of Immigration? Foreigners in the provinces still have to travel to the nearest BI office for documentation, instead of being able to do everything online with the assistance of the local PNP in their area.

Come to think of it, I don’t even know if the legislators actually managed to pass a revised 2022 version of the Philippine Immigration Act that is probably more senior than I am! It would be downright insulting to the Filipino people if the Senate has not managed to do their job on that, considering the speed they were able to “naturalize” an imported basketball player and make him an instant Filipino.

May I also point out that these conditions have existed years before Covid-19, existed under several presidents before and, more importantly, all the major and minor airports around the world have been experiencing even worse conditions especially now, due to the global phenomenon of “Revenge Traveling.”

My family members who have been traveling to the Netherlands and the UK this year have been more apprehensive about what they might have go through in EU airports than in the Philippines. Imagine 2-kilometer long queues of passengers lined up to check in, people fainting or breaking down while standing in line for hours in EU airports.

I recently traveled to Davao with a couple of senior columnists and no one in the group had anything bad to say about NAIA. “Small” one said, but that was it. The only other comment was about Davao International Airport which remained old and rundown and obviously did not benefit from having a Davao native as president in the last six years.

Yes, the NAIA has operational glitches but is that really the fault of MIAA or DOTr when it is Congress, Senate and whoever is sitting in Malacañang who makes the decisions and controls the budget for any and all improvements of the NAIA and other airports?! For decades aviation executives and journalists have pointed out that there are too many “cooks” or too many persons of authority in NAIA which needs to be addressed, trimmed or streamlined.

There are at least three if not four official law enforcement groups inside and outside the NAIA and they all have an invisible line marking their territory and authority. Airport police, PNP, Avesecom and the Transport Security Authority. Then you have the Bureau of Immigration that has its own rules, schedules and staffing. If Senator Poe or her associates were grievously inconvenienced, it is simply because you get what you pay for. If we want better facilities, then invest in them.

But no one had the vision or the political will to build a real honest-to-goodness airport. All the politicians have only been interested in staking their claim or marking their turf. Even now when San Miguel Corporation and its president Ramon Ang boldly embarked on a high stakes investment to put up the San Miguel Bulacan International Airport, all they get is grief, challenge and stone silence instead of public support. That is why we are where we are.