Tuesday, December 22, 1998
The government is reviewing decisions made by civil aviation authorities in the past which were detrimental to national interests in order to overhaul the country’s aviation policy.
“This is what we are reviewing to rectify some of these errors made before,” Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu said, but he declined to reveal any details on the matter.
In an interview, a senior Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) official disclosed that these policy errors include the “indiscriminate” granting of temporary operating permits, passenger capacity entitlements and the so-called “fifth freedom” rights given to foreign carriers.
Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Franklin Ebdalin, who is a member of the CAB, said these concessions have severely hurt the local aviation industry.
“The previous CAB administrations gave away our air traffic rights to foreign carriers without regard for our own interests,” Ebdalin added, as he criticized the CAB’s failure to protect national interests as it carried out the liberalization policies of the Ramos administration.
He added that “that was wrong. Philippine air rights are national assets. We should not be giving them away without anything in return. Why should we side with foreign interests in the name of liberalization?”
“It is the government’s sworn duty to protect its own nationals. Even the United States, whose air carriers are among the most powerful in the world, protects its own,” Ebdalin said.
Since the country liberalized the aviation industry in 1993, it has seen a tremendous increase in passenger seat capacity that has proved ruinous to local carriers, many of which are new to the industry or have just been privatized and have no access to government support.
Even worse, previous CAB administrations since 1993 allowed foreign carriers to gain over 500,000 seats per year under the “fifth freedom” rights the board granted. This policy also allows foreign carriers to pick up passengers at intermediate points -- or areas outside of the carrier’s home country -- and fly them to Manila.
This has siphoned off air traffic that would have otherwise used the services of local carriers, most of these passengers being overseas Filipino workers, businessmen and tourists.
To rectify these oversights, Ebdalin said the CAB will begin by reviewing the Philippines’ bilateral air service agreements with a number of countries. “We need to review the imbalances that exist and we’ll propose adjustments to the agreements accordingly.”@
No comments:
Post a Comment