Bedlam at the airport

It is good President GMA has stopped shoe-inspecting before departure except for those who are US-bound or any other country with this security measure. It is a positive step but not nearly the solution to the problem. The NAIA airport is a decrepit building which has outlived its usefulness. Worse, it is mismanaged. I had read about problems at the airport and was warned to make an allowance of at least 3 hours before departure. Added security measures, it was said. This I wanted to see for myself and I had the chance on my way out to Kuala Lumpur last week for the Media Summit 2004. My husband and I left the house thinking we would take our time, maybe have a meal before boarding the plane, which was departing at 3:20. Horror of horrors. What passengers encounter in the airport is not just the inconvenience of added security requirements (even that is not done efficiently) but sheer bedlam.

Imagine a crowd, more a mob of several hundreds of passengers, all wanting to get into two narrow doors with about two policemen managing the kilometer long lines that snaked about six queues deep spilling into the sidewalk and stretching from end to end of the entire length of the airport terminal. If I had read it in the newspapers I would have been indignant but actually experiencing the problem in the outdated airport made me really angry. It is hell in the airport for departing passengers.

My flight for Kuala Lumpur was at 2:30 but I was in the queue before 11 and reached the entrance for departing passengers close to 2 o’clock. Several times I lost my poise and temper when others barged in with no regard to the queue. With only two policemen to put order in this bedlam, several passengers were close to fisticuffs. There were those who pleaded – mahuhuli na ho ako sa aking flight, others who were rude when told to keep the queue – huwag kayong sisigaw, and still others were desperate sige na po please paunahin ninyo kami, saan ho ba ang dulo ng queue?

When I reached the entrance and saw some men scurrying with their airport badges, I asked but who was in charge? Wala po. OIC lang po. So where is the OIC? Nakita ko siya diyan kanina, naglalakad-lakad. The actual security measures were over in seconds although I found it silly that I had to remove my sandals while more dangerous looking men in front of me were not asked to remove their more sinister looking socks and closed shoes? Where is the logic of that as an added security measure? I called Conrado Ching of People’s Tonight, a veteran reporter in the airport and asked him just what the hell was going on! I could not hear his answer in the din of the crowds. There were some very well dressed foreigners, looking business like and perhaps shocked at the chaos of an airport, unseen in any other Asian country. But then, it may be a bigger problem than mismanagement. What was an airport manager to do with crowds like this and a woefully inadequate building and several flights all leaving at the same time? Nothing much.

Inside a man with a walkie-talkie was walking around calling out for passengers of a JAL flight at 2 o’clock still trapped in the queues. Some Japanese were behind me and asked if I was also taking the JAL flight in broken English. He obviously did not hear the announcement from JAL that passengers for that flight should immediately join a separate queue for passengers whose flights were immediately departing. I would be surprised if the passengers of that JAL flight could have been rounded up in an hour. That means losses for the airline, but more importantly, goodwill for anyone interested in the Philippines as a tourist destination or a place of investment.

Indeed, most of the countries in Asia put the need for a well-run, modern airport on top of its list for their development efforts and they do not even have the OFWs who daily crowd our airports. I mentally calculated how much revenue the airport must be getting from this daily inflow and outflow of passengers – millions, maybe billions of pesos – so why was it not being put to good use? Everyone was scrambling for rickety luggage carts that were better in the garbage dump. These carts were donations and yet once upon a time passengers were charged for its use by an enterprising politician. At least now these are free but why can’t we have newer carts and enough for the volume of passengers in our airport? That was departure from the Ninoy International Airport in Manila so you can imagine how badly I felt when I arrived in the spunkingly modern and huge airport in Kuala Lumpur with trains to ferry passengers to the arrival terminal.

I have made it clear in my columns that if it is choice between an experienced leader and one who will be the patsy of discredited personalities from the Marcos and Erap regimes, I will choose the experienced leader anytime. But this choice must be immediately tied up with what to expect from good governance. Having had the experience at the airport, I would like a modest request after the May elections. I want a single, doable project. A well-run modern airport tops my list . We need a decent airport that can handle the flow of thousands of OFWs who contribute billions of dollars to our economy. Moreover, any tourism promotion is doomed with the kind of facilities we have now at the NAIA. I would not even venture to speak of investors.

That airport scene tells it all. I do not want to touch on the controversy on NAIA 3 or the problems of PIATCO because I do not think that is the question. My concern is to get going with a decent airport. We need a properly working airport not tomorrow not next year but today. There is no reason why we should have the horror I witnessed at the airport. It was just too much. Why can’t we have a decent airport like the rest of our Asian neighbors?

It was a relief to land at KL. It must have been made by the Germans because it reminded me of Frankfurt. It reminded me of the spaces in the new Hong Kong airport. Even the airport in Jakarta would have been a blessing. In the end it was a question of attitude. Why do Filipinos take this kind of punishment so passively? It is time we seriously review what to expect from government. If we had a parliamentary government, it could be an issue for a no-confidence vote. This brings us back to the issue of accountability. A presidential system just does not have that accountability. With a guaranteed term, leaders can evade the issues of public concern. The airport is one of them.

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