Dismissal of CAB execs pushed for Laoag Airlines violations

Aviation stakeholders are pressing for the dismissal and prosecution of civil aviation authorities who have been allegedly remiss in their job of ensuring the safety of travelers.

Stakeholders led by the Save Our Skies (SOS) movement, an advocacy group pushing for the formulation and proper implementation of policies concerning air safety and service upgrade, said the outcome of initial hearings conducted by an independent fact-finding committee probing the crash of Laoag International Airlines (LIA) showed that Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) officials were apparently incompetent in discharging their duties.

"The CAB under Executive Director Manuel San Jose tolerated several violations by LIA, including non-compliance with CAB’s reportorial requirements from 1995 to 2000," SOS said. It said San Jose has not done anything to make LIA pay the P325,00 penalty the airline owed CAB.

SOS stressed that it is the responsibility of CAB to look into the economic viability of financial capability of an airline.

"It was discovered during the hearings that LIA was not financially sound, the reason why it paid low wages to its employees and allow some of its workers to assume multiple jobs. The CAB should have immediately stepped in and imposed sanctions against LIA, including suspending its operations, but it did not," SOS said.

It said if an airline has a financial problem, safety and security will likely suffer "because it will resort to shortcuts."

The SOS said had San Jose not slept on the job, the crash of LIA’s Flight 585 would not have happened and lives would have been saved.

The SOS said the CAB should have also looked into the ownership structure of LIA following reports that the airline is allegedly owned by Malaysian investors.

"Being the top official of CAB, San Jose should have ordered his people to look closely not only into the financial capability of LIA, but also the nationality of its investors because reports have already surfaced that the airline is owned by foreign investors," it said.

Earlier, San Jose was the object of criticisms for submitting the designation of CLA Air Transport, Inc. as official cargo carrier between the Philippines and Japan to Malacañang even though it (designation) was not ratified by the CAB board. Because of San Jose’s premature submission of CLA’s designation, what President Arroyo signed was an illegal document, according to Lakas Rep. Aniceto Saludo of Southern Leyte.

He (San Jose) was also responsible for the loss by the Philippines of 4.5 runway slots at the Narita Airport in Japan because it took him a year to act on the offer of the Japan Civil Aeronautics Board (JCAB) for the use of the slots, the SOS said.

It was learned that even the Philippine panel during the air consultation talks in Japan last Oct. 28 and 29 was not informed by San Jose about the JCAB offer, resulting in its embarrassment when it raised the issue before their Japanese counterparts.