Today
Saturday, September 19, 1998
OUTSIDE of Metro Manila the sun will definitely be a lot dimmer when Asia's sunniest sets down next week. Although many businesses will surely be affected, the country's tourism industry may be the most crippled and hurting.
Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta called the shutdown nothing short of disastrous.
"The tourism Industry stands to be hardest hit once PAL closes shop,” Cruz- Araneta said. "PAL's closure will drastically reduce tourist traffic to the Philippines and to its outlying island destinations."
Data from the Department of Tourism show that the national economy stands to lose about P259 million daily in tourism revenues with PAL's closure.
"The more immediate impact will be felt by the hotel and tourism industry. We have a lot of conventions and other events," a worried Robert Montelibano of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) said, citing golf tournaments and the popular Masskara Festival in October.
Montelibano added that the loss of the Bacolod-Cebu route has already been a big blow. "It's going to be terrible. Business is already bad as it is, and we have just started recuperating by bringing in new conventions. PAL handled the biggest number of passengers."
Oscar Bascon, owner of Bacolod's Bascon Hotel, sees room occupancies going down together with the PAL planes. "During the pilots' strike," he recalled, "occupancies plunged to as low as 50 percent."
Local businesses, natives say, can perhaps cope better. Diosdado Cadena, head of Iloilo’s trade and industry department said, "Businesses can be transacted through faxes, cell phones and e-mails. But without tourists and travelers, hotels and restaurants will suffer."
Cadena said that products from Iloilo—seafood, fruits and vegetables, sugar—are being shipped in refrigerated vans; airlines have really been the ones for tourists and other travelers.
Still, other local businesses will not be immune from the effects of the PAL closure. Montelibano said several investment areas and new business ventures will also be affected. He cited as example the Japanese investments in okra plantations in Escalante (in northern Negros), which uses PAL for their shipments. "The closure will definitely make the Japanese investors rethink their options," he added.
Winston Garcia of the Iloilo Business Club complained that Iloilo has already been cut off from the main artery of trade and commerce in the South. He pointed out that the province has been bypassed by investors and executives because of the too few flights from Manila as well as the closure of the Iloilo-Cebu and Iloilo-General Santos route.
Members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI) from Mindanao and the Visayas have appealed for representation during the protracted PAL strike problems. Radin Amante of the PCCI said there may be other airlines servicing the same route, but PAL's coverage is more extensive and more frequent than the rest.
Indeed, the question of who should fill the void in the skies left by PAL is foremost in everybody's mind. Montelibano says the two other airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines, cannot possibly service all the passengers attending conventions in Bacolod. "They are very small and cannot fill the gap," he says.
Bascon of Bascon Hotel thinks the two airlines can help ease the need but agrees that they will not be able to fill in gaping void of PAL's absence. "They just don't have enough planes," he said.
Tourism Regional Director Catalina Dacudao said that in Southem Mindanao, at least 49 percent of air seats a month (3,000 air seats) have been lost since the start of the PAL strike.
Mary June Bugante, Deputy Administrator of the Zamboanga City-based Zambo Ecozone and Free Port, said other airlines have already failed in servicing PAL’s routes during the strike last June. "Air Phil service is not very reliable. But I hope it can fill the gap," she said.
Roque Hofileña, Negros Occidental Provincial Development and Planning Officer is optimistic. "Hopefully, circumstances will force the other airlines or new entrants to take up the slack."
The President of the Cagayan de Oro Chambers of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc. (Orochamber), Arturo Mercader, likewise sounds off a hopeful note. In the absence of PAL, he believes that other forms of conveyance, like shipping, can accommodate both the passengers and cargoes to and from Manila and other parts of the country. "It is just a matter of getting adjusted to the situation," he said.
PAL Cagayan de Oro City station serves some 300 passengers and carries 12 tons of cargo daily from the cities of Iligan of Lanao Norte, Gingoog of Misamis Oriental and Malaybalay of Bukidnon.
John Gaisano, owner of one of the biggest malls in Davao City, said that the reason why other airlines do not venture to service other routes within Mindanao is because most of these routes are "missionary" and that airlines do not obtain profits from them. Missionary routes are economically disadvantaged flight destinations long subsidized by the government.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago has proposed that air transport officials immediately require other airline companies to fly PAL's missionary routes after its closure next week. "Government has no recourse but to assign each airline company a number of these routes,” she said. F.T. Balmes with J. Espina, C. Francisco, V. Labiste, R. Fnerio
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