Category Archives: Philippines

The news and entertainment industry has been so immersed with the Santiago-Tulfo NAIA3 brawling incident. Many are star struck with the incident, that it has already turned into a comedic zarzuela. The Santiago-Tulfo brawl has been trending in local forums, twitter tweets, Facebook and all other social networking sites several days now.

But behind this controversial brawl – the sad fate of our aviation services and airport has been de-faced:

- That the CCTV in NAIA 3 is not functioning.

- The question of competency of the subcontracted security services of NAIA3 – are they really capable in handling such situation which has transpired like this squabble?

- The issue of BAGGAGE OFF-LOADING was not well communicated to the passengers. The airline management should at least inform the passengers before hand that their baggage are subjected into this internal procedure so that the passengers will not be caught off guard when they found out about it.

BAGGAGE OFFLOADING – where passenger’s luggage had to be offloaded from the plane from due to problems with excess plane load. It will be boarded on the second next available flight whereas the owner can wait for it, or as per CebuPac spokesperson Candice Iyog – it will be delivered to the passenger’s residence at the airline’s expense.

These are just some to name a few. Of course our aviation has other problems like:

- Flight delays

- Insufficient facilities – It was also previously discussed that our local airports cannot cope with the rapid expansion of the airline companies – meaning the airline companies acquire airplanes but there is not enough run way to accommodate the flights.

- Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 (NAIA 1)was also cited as the 2nd worst airport in the world by Frommers, one of the leading brands for travel guides in the world – coming from a trusted brand of travel authority this surely has a negative effect in our tourism. (New York JFK Airport Terminal 3 – rank as 1st worst airport in the world as of 2012). Frommer’s results based on the four C’s – comfort, conveniences, cleanliness and customer service.”

- United States Federal Aviation Administration down graded the Philippines to Category 2 safety status in January 2008, effectively banning local carriers from expanding their operations in the US. This dversely affects tourism growth. Under Category 2 status it prevents local carriers from expanding their flights to the US, has hampered tourism growth.

But still I am never losing hope that above issues can be resolve.  We need a good public servants to address the problems – someone who is driven and has real concern to help our country.  We also need to have a realistic rehabilitation plan for Philippine Aviation nationwide.

Aviation Industry may not directly affect each and every Filipino but it can have an impact in our economy – a good aviation system and facilities can translate to a good feedback to foreigners and tourist which can also translate to a growth in the tourism industry.

As a tax payer,  I hope that I can really see where the taxes go….