NAIA Terminal 3 operator muddling issue — labor leader

A labor leader assailed yesterday the attempt by the Filipino owners of the company that will operate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 for diverting and muddling the issue on the controversy-mired airport project.

Jun Agan, president of the MIASCOR Labor Union, said Jefferson Cheng, president of the Philippine Airport Ground Services, Inc. (PAGS), which will monopolize ground handling services in the new terminal, is raising unrelated issues on the project, including besmirching the reputation of rival businessman Lucio Tan, to divert the public’s attention.

Agan was referring to a published article in which Cheng claimed that the Terminal 3 is allegedly "the missing piece to his (Tan’s) plan to gain control of businesses related to the airline industry."

"This is not the real issue. The real issue is that the project is anti-Filipino and anti-labor because of the many onerous provisions in the contract between the government and the Philippine International Air Terminal Co. Inc. (PIATCO)," he said. PAGS is a partner of PIATCO in the project.

According to Agan, PIATCO and PAGS should answer charges that the juicy terms negotiated by PIATCO in the contract during the time of former President Estrada were the result of corrupt practices on the part of the firm and the Estrada administration.

This includes, Agan said, the total monopoly by PAGS over ground handling services like maintenance, ramp, passenger, cargo and catering in the new airport.

"Workers at the NAIA Terminals 1 and 2 are the ones who will greatly suffer as a result of PAGS’ monopoly over ground handling services in the new airport because we will be out of work. How about our family?" he stressed.

The House good government committees is currently investigating the government-PIATCO contract in response to various resolutions filed by Reps. Sherwin Gatchalian, Raul Gonzalez and Eduardo Veloso.