Government to Correct Aviation Policy Errors

The Philippine Star

Friday, December 18, 1998

The government is reviewing decisions made by civil aviation authorities in the past that were detrimental to the national interest in preparation for a total overhaul of national aviation policy, Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu said yesterday.

“This is what we are reviewing, to rectify some of these errors made before," Espiritu said shortly before President Estrada left for Vietnam the other day to attend the ASEAN leaders summit.

The finance chief, however, did not detail the move as he reiterated the President's resolve to maintain a viable local air transport industry, which is crucial to the health of the national economy.

But in an interview, a senior official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) disclosed these policy errors, which included the "indiscriminate- granting of temporary operating permits, passenger capacity entitlements and so-called “fifth freedom" rights to foreign carriers.

These concessions have severely hurt the local aviation industry. said Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Franklin Ebdalin, who is a member of the CAB.

"The previous CAB administration gave away our air traffic rights to foreign carriers without regard for our own interests," Ebdalin added, as he deplored the agency's failure to protect the national interest in carrying out the liberalization policies of the Ramos administration.

“That was wrong, Philippine air rights are national assets. We should not be giving them away for nothing in return. Why should we side with foreign interests in the name of liberalization?” he said.

"It is the government's sworn duty to protect its own nationals. Even the US, whose carriers are already the most powerful in the world, still aggressively protects its own."

Since the Country liberalized its aviation industry in 1993, it has seen a tremendous increase in passenger seat capacity that has proved ruinous to local carriers many of whom are start-ups or newly privatized firms with no access to government support.

Even more alarming, from zero in 1993. the previous CAB had allowed foreign carriers to gain over 500,000 seats per year in "fifth freedom" rights or the right to pick up passengers in intermediate points (not in the carrier's home country) and fly them to Manila.— PNA