Goodbye fun in the Philippines?

First it was a Filipino airline executive who publicly lamented our expected failure to get 10 million tourists by 2016. Then it was a government official, the chief operating officer of the Tourism Promotions Board who tried to be hopeful but inevitably confirmed the sad turn of events.

It’s probably true that it’s more fun in the Philippines, but unfortunately, we do not have the right infrastructure to cash in on it. Let us start with the airports or what passes for airports. There’s NAIA. Get the point? It’s hopeless.

It really is not for lack of trying. I know Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez really tried to get the bureaucracy to line up in support of his ambitious tourism program. Mon convinced Sec. Purisima to be reasonable with airline taxes. Mon got CIQ to rationalize their staffing and working hours so that they don’t look like a mafia gang holding up the airlines in the guise of overtime pay.

What really proved to be more than Mon can handle is transport infra. Despite his close friendship with Mar Roxas, Mon couldn’t get DOTC to move faster on airports… not even on the decrepit NAIA 1 which is a national disgrace. Then there is Kalibo airport, the gateway to Boracay. Mar was replaced by Abaya and while there is some movement, still no discernible sense of urgency. Horrible!

According to Domingo Enerio III of the Tourism Promotion Board, the P265-billion National Tourism Development Plan will likely be revised to reflect recent developments that have affected visitors’ arrivals, as well as the sluggish pace in infrastructure construction. Ok, we can understand the natural calamities but even before the Bohol quake and Yolanda “the sluggish pace in infrastructure construction” already doomed the tourism program.

What I don’t understand is the next statement of Enerio. “We are not revising the 10-million target for 2016. We are not fazed by the challenges.  We want everyone to work to still meet that target.”

Huh? Are they in denial of reality? Meeting the 10-million target depends on DOTC… that being the case, the game is over.

They will not meet the five-million target this year and may not even meet that target next year or year after next until P-Noy bows out of office. Physical realities: not enough airport capacity… not enough roads… not enough investments in hotels because private investors want to see public infrastructure first.

The only folks stupid enough to believe the government on our imagined tiger economy and invested heavily are the domestic airlines. The airlines believed the government and ordered new Airbuses. Ironically, Mar Roxas didn’t even show appreciation as he ordered the domestic carriers to indefinitely sacrifice flights at NAIA because of congestion. What will they do with all those planes now?

At long last, a private airline executive gathered the guts to say what ought to have been said two years ago. 

Seair International president and CEO Avelino Zapanta said with reference to Mar’s order when he was still DOTC Secretary: “His short- and medium-term solutions to the current problems should be to do what is necessary, such as the elimination of the general aviation from NAIA which the administration failed to do because of the lack of political will.

“It’s the interest of a few rich people against the interest of the entire country and the traveling public. Their tiny jets occupy the same time, which is the same time you could have used for a wide-body aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers, instead of a business jet carrying only two or three executives. Where’s the economic sense there? They give priority to executive jets rather than commercial jets.”

I sat next to Mr. Zapanta in a transport briefing sponsored by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) some weeks ago. I got an earful from him, but I didn’t think he wanted me to print what he told me. I was surprised to read in Business Mirror everything he complained to me about the state of local airline and tourism industries. He must be really fed up.

Zapanta said all the local airlines could no longer expand because of the slotting problem at NAIA. “The premier airport is saturated, the airlines are quarreling for slots… ”

He continues: “I no longer believe that we can achieve 10 million tourists because of poor infrastructure.” He said even the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) admitted a few weeks ago that growth in the first nine months of 2013 was flat compared to the last three years.

According to Business Mirror, data from the CAB showed that combined passenger traffic of the six domestic carriers hit 15.42 million, down by about half a percent, from January to September 2012. “That’s even worse than flat. Actually it is a negative growth,” Zapanta told Business Mirror.

DOTC, under Roxas, promised the airlines government would quickly put in night landing facilities in more domestic airports so the airlines could schedule more flights round the clock and not just during daytime hours, a reason for the NAIA clogging. A couple of years after, no such thing happened.

For instance, I keep on seeing DOTC tweets announcing afternoon flight cancellations in Caticlan, an important tourist hub, because of sunset limitations. Last Monday, such cancellations were also reported by DOTC for Cagayan de Oro and Tagbilaran. Busuanga is also subject to this uncertainty which tourists hate.

Is there no solution, however temporary, to this problem?  We all saw how the US military addressed that problem overnight at Tacloban. They put in a stand alone system consisting of a Humvee mounted radar and portable runway lights which enabled the battered Tacloban airport, and I am told even the Guiuan airstrip in Samar, to operate 24/7.

But the Americans left with their Humvee system soon after and CAAP announced they are back to normal, meaning the sunset limitation to flights. Why should our normal be below the emergency facilities the Americans have?

Couldn’t we have asked the Americans to stay a while, lend us their system or sell us surplus units they no longer use in Afghanistan so our airports will look like they are in business? CAAP may take forever to put in place the permanent night flight systems.

Maybe there is a manpower problem too… a technical deficit. Zapanta talked of “many seasoned air controllers gone, pirated, replaced by new ones who may not be as efficient, as dexterous as the seasoned ones that left.” If this is so, why aren’t we hearing of plans to train as many new air traffic controllers as we need?

Ewan ko po. Hangang dito na lang ba talaga tayo?

 Electrifying rates

I have a few more questions about our electrifying rates. Meralco, as always, washes its hands saying they are just passing on generation charges. Three things come to mind:

Shouldn’t there be a review of the rules covering power generators that allow them to just pass on fuel cost? Shouldn’t they be asked to show proof their fuel costs are reasonable? 

The Ilijan power plant for instance, used biodiesel in lieu of Malampaya. According to Meralco, that translates to P8.91/kwh compared to natural gas at P3.47/kwh. Couldn’t they have been given exemption to the biodiesel law? 

Then there is a need to review the transmission rate. The Arroyo administration fattened up the transmission rate allegedly to attract buyers at the time they were privatizing Transco. It was privatized to a group of Arroyo cronies and the State Grid of China.

The cronies unloaded at a huge profit after a few months to the group of Henry Sy Jr. Both the Sy group and their Chinese partner are raking it in ever since. Part of the current increase goes to the National Grid Corp. of the Phils owned by Sy and the Chinese government owned company.

Thirdly, they should explain the new system of setting Meralco’s rates. It is called the Performance Based Rate (PBR) system. I doubt if ERC has the means to evaluate the statistics passed on by Meralco to justify their increases under PBR.

The old system, at least, seems more transparent with financial data which can be independently verified. How does one independently verify the claim, for instance, that Meralco had less power outages in a given period? That’s a component of PBR.

Given that she is obviously unqualified for her position as ERC chair and her being implicated in the current pork scam problems which saw the fall of Ruffy Biazon, shouldn’t she offer her resignation out of hiya or delicadeza? Shouldn’t P-Noy ask for her resignation?

In threes

From @HecklerForever: They say deaths come in threes: Paul Walker, Nelson Mandela, and helpless Meralco consumers.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco