National airports as showcases of shame and incompetence

The lousiest government agency is the Department of Transportation (DOTr). We have lousy airports and airlines run by incompetents and inept management teams. If that mess in the airport last week took place in Japan, the airport manager and the Transportation secretary, within 24 hours, would bow before the nation in shame and tender their irrevocable resignations. Here, officials are shameless.

The mayhem that took place at the Manila International Airport (MIA) last week, due to that Xiamen plane incident, showed to the world again, how inefficient, poorly organized, and incompetent we are in handling a minor crisis, and managing a medium-sized airport. We were tested and found wanting. I am tempted to think that China just gave us a series of tests: Whether we can put up a decent defense should Beijing decide to invade us. The series of landings in Davao of Chinese planes, purportedly to refuel, might be a ploy to look around our ports of entry. But that is another story. Let us focus on the incompetence of our airport systems. DOTr officials do not realize the importance of world class airport management.

The first impression any tourist or dignitary would have of any country is its airport. It is also the last impression when each of them leaves. When I first landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, I was impressed with the ambiance, beauty to foreign visitors, cleanliness of toilets, orderliness of procedures, dignity of immigration officers, respect from staff and workers, and systematic arrangements of the sections. All impressive, and I could sigh in silence: If only the MIA could emulate such showcase of a country with visionary leaders, bureaucrats who have public service on their minds.

Certainly, I cannot compare our airports to the JFK International Airport in New York, or the ones in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dulles in Washington DC, Amsterdam, London, or Paris. But comparing MIA with airports in Hong Kong, Taipeh, Jakarta, Bangkok, Tokyo, or Seoul leaves us with a big “why.” This is not just the ineptitude or lack of foresight of the current administration. It started during the times of Quezon, Osmeña, Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, and Marcos. They were shortsighted and not visionaries like Malaysia’s Mahathir or Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew.

Presidents Cory, FVR, Erap, GMA, and PNoy never lifted a finger to address the problem. Too small airport with only one or two runways for hundreds of flights daily. Thousands of passengers lining up; facilities old and outmoded; systems archaic; people not trained to be world-class; and everyone is relaxed. Passengers are in perpetual discomfort, and stress— lots of anger, blaming and resentment in our airports. Personnel have no sense of urgency, no customer-orientation: they just do not care. The baby boomers like me will all die and the situation will remain bad and then worse. I do not trust the millennial or the generations after them (sorry to say) to have that sense of outrage enough to make them move and change this mess. Our father's generations failed. Our own likewise failed. We cannot blame the next for the mess we created. We should bow down and let others take our job.