Fire him

There is a scourge plaguing our premier airport. His name is Jose Angel Aquino Honrado.

Now that all the brouhaha over the APEC summit is done, the scourge must be purged. The man must be fired.

After five years at his post, Honrado still does not know what his job was. That was clear from the statements he made before the Senate hearing the week before the APEC interregnum.

I have talked to people who know the workings of the airport intimately. They are all scandalized by the ignorance and incompetence Honrado flaunted before the Senate – including the lies he dispensed.

For instance, the CCTV system inside the terminal, which observes passengers as well as airport personnel, is entirely under the control of the office of the general manager. No one else messes with that system. Obviously, Honrado has not been using this system as intended.

A few years ago, a special security fee was charged passengers. That was a time-bound charge, intended to raise about P2 billion to upgrade airport security systems to meet global standards. We do not know what happened to the money collected for the purpose. Honrado should at least offer an accounting.

The kindest theory we could offer about where this money went is this: the fund was returned to the national government, disguised as “dividends” which the Aquino administration has been obsessively collecting from all GOCCs.

All passengers are charged a pretty hefty terminal fee. That is now built into the price of the ticket. OFW groups and ordinary citizens have the right to demand an audit of the use of this fund. Our airport terminal, despite all the terminal fees charged, remains as creaky and leaky as ever.

Honrado did not seem to know that the now notorious Office for Transport Security (OTS) was organized to meet standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It is patterned after the agency established by the US and supervised by Homeland Security in the years after 9/11 attack on New York.

Although the OTS is under the DOTC, the MIAA General Manager oversees its work through the inter-agency “security council” over which he presides. Honrado renamed that council and then never convened it. As a consequence, the separate agencies involved with securing the airport went about their merry ways without effective oversight.

Previous general managers maintained “action officers” who were quickly deployed to trouble shoot any problems that might arise in airport operations. These troubleshooters immediately attended to any complaint raised by passengers, the real clients of the airport management.

Honrado dismissed these action officers and therefore had no reliable unit to attend to hitches or complaints at the airport. This is the reason why many days after the “tanim-bala” scandal broke out, Honrado’s office had not gotten in touch with any of the victims. No inquiry was conducted even if the extortion racket went on for years. This could not happen under the previous airport managers.

For years, passengers have complained about their luggage being slit open and their contents stolen as they were moved from the planes to the carousels. The MIAA management did nothing about the complaints.

On top of that, he appointed “assistant general managers” to look after the three terminals of the Manila airport. That removed the single point of responsibility necessary for effective management of a facility whose operations are complex.

This set-up is obviously intended to take work out of the office Honrado heads. This man is not only incompetent. He is lazy.

Honrado’s predecessors personally observed airport operations first-hand. All of them made it a point to rotate personnel regularly to prevent unhealthy familiarization especially those who work in close proximity with the luggage.

Honrado never did that. This is why, when a group of legislators who were former law enforcers went to visit the airport, they noted so many lapses in procedure.

The previous airport management even went into such details as prescribing how passengers lined up so as to disable immigrations rackets involving human trafficking. Honrado never bothered with such details. This is why so many fugitives managed to slip out and so many unsavory characters such as Wang Bo so easily slipped in.

Our airport is a strange place. There are 22 separate government agencies that maintain personnel at the terminal. No other airport in the world has as many government agents walking around the terminals as here. This is a pretty bizarre situation.

The situation explains why passengers who have friends at the airport often ask to be escorted. Every few meters, until the passenger finally boards his plane, there is danger of falling victim to one extortion ploy or another. The “tanim-bala” scheme is only one of several rackets in a facility that is supposed to be a most secure zone.

Under Horado’s brand of management, the situation just deteriorated. The “tanim-bala” scandal was a bomb waiting to blow.

We know that some critics have accused President Noynoy Aquino of being at his post for five years and still does not know what his job really is. That, however, is not an excuse to keep a man like Honrado at his post – a man who after five years at his post remains obviously clueless about the requirements of the job.

We know Honrado suffered a stroke a few months ago. He needs the rest. Firing him will be a charitable act.

It will also relieve the fear that grips passengers going through airport procedures. The cling wrap on the pieces of luggage says it all.