Too much airport mess and air flight delays
The air transport sector is a big mess. Flights are delayed for three to five hours. Meetings are cancelled. Appointments are derailed. Schedules are postponed. Thousands are stranded and made to wait without definite forward schedules. The temperature is always rising with tempers flaring. Millions in expected income is lost. Contracts are cancelled, and possible business deals are put on uncertain hold. The airlines' shallow and insincere alibis are becoming hackneyed: "Due to the delay in the arrivals of your turn-around aircraft, your scheduled departure will be delayed". Shame on you. There is neither sincerity nor an indicium of truth to such canned alibi. Then it is repeated every hour or so. No airport authority is there to show some concern to the welfare of the people they are supposed to be serving.
If we cannot blame the current administration for this mess in airline schedules and overcrowded airport terminals, then until when should we still point our fingers at PNoy and GMA for such a horrendous spectacle of administrative mediocrity? After a year of being in office, we have not seen any concrete plan to alleviate the suffering of the riding public. This guy, Art Tugade, who started his public career in the Department of Transportation almost a year ago, was very vocal and high profile, appearing in all media, print broadcast and internet, talking like any political braggart, and sounding like he has the panacea for the problems in the transport sector. Today, his silence and surprising invisibility is quite intriguing. He started with a bang, and now there isn't even a whimper from this "overpromising" trapo.
Who is in charge of the airline industry? Who has the plan for a modern airport in Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna? Why are the private sectors being relied upon to address a government problem? Who has the interim answer to our woes? Why is Tugade mysteriously silent and disappearing in the face of the transport crisis? There is crisis in the traffic mess in EDSA, in the Mactan bridges, in Davao, in Cagayan de Oro, and even Baguio. There is a mess in the maritime sector, in the land transport sector, and yes, indeed, in the air transport sector too. And what is the government doing?
The tourism secretary keeps on asking for cooperation in selling the Philippines to the foreign and domestic tourists. Well, with airports looking like secrets prison cells, (what with too much overcrowding, lack of furniture, and people squatting on the floors) with threats of terrorism looming around like crazy, and with taxi drivers that pose clear and imminent danger to passengers, how can we sell the Philippines? This mess in the airports and flight delays will most probably derail all marketing efforts. Tourists have a lot of other options and better destinations. I feel sad for our country. There is so much beauty and enjoyment to experience. But everything is bound to go down the drain if the transport and airport officials remain impervious to the mess before their very eyes. Nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to be in charge. How then can there be more fun in the Philippines?
- Latest
