Microcosm

Everything that ails our society is at work at the Manila International Airport (MIA). This is why the country’s premier air facility is in such a sorry state.

After many decades of failure, government simply threw up its hands and decided to hand over operations at the airport to a private concessionaire. This is certainly one of the best policy decisions government made in so many years.

Over two weeks ago, a consortium led by San Miguel Corporation formally assumed control of the MIA. The turnover was accompanied with high hopes that this creaky, corruption-plagued facility – named the world’s worst airport so many times – will finally transform into something the country can be proud of.

To be sure, San Miguel did not assume responsibility for rebuilding our premier airport with its eyes closed to the realities on the ground. Many of the problems saddling airport operations require some amount of political will to solve – an amount of political will government never mustered. San Miguel CEO Ramon Ang has begun demonstrating he will have the necessary political will to set things right.

Some of the problems are truly mundane. But they turn out to be the peskiest.

For instance, the parking area for Terminal 3 is constantly congested. It turns out, residents of nearby condominium buildings, instead of paying for parking slots where they live, chose to use the airport’s parking area, taking advantage of the ridiculously low parking rates, especially for overnight parking.

In addition, government employees assigned to the airport likewise use the parking facility for free. They sometimes store their second cars there, adding to the congestion.

This week, new parking rates will be applied.

Inside the terminals, precious space is used up by all sorts of concessionaires. It turns out, the concessions were awarded on the basis of political influence. San Miguel is getting rid of all of them to free up space for travelers.

The food concessions, won by means of political intermediation, sold food at higher prices. They claimed they had to make up for higher rental expenses. It turns out, rental fees for food outlets at the terminals were actually lower than those charged by the large malls.

Ang decreed that food outlets at the airport will charge the same prices as they do in the malls. Furthermore, only the credible food chains will be given space at the terminals. Enough of screwing the harried passengers with overpriced food.

The new airport operator is also cancelling the VIP passes issued to aides of powerful officials. These passes, it turns out, has become some sort of cottage industry. Some holders of these passes charge ridiculously high amounts for escorting shady characters entering or leaving the country. In addition, they escort luggage through the inspection areas and connive with Customs officials in getting them through unchecked.

While waiting for their contracted clients, they hang around the terminals, adding to the congestion. When their “courtesy” passes are cancelled, the terminals will be less crowded.

The reason why the buildings around the airport facilities look so downtrodden is because so much public land has been leased out long-term to influential businessmen decades ago. Some of the land is leased out for only 20 centavos per square meter per month. The businessmen enjoying these bargain leases have made so much money for decades subleasing spaces around the airport. Fortunately, many of these bargain leases are expiring soon and real rental prices may be finally charged on valuable property linked to the airport.

Last year, during a particularly heavy downpour, the MIA tarmac flooded. The reason this happened was that the nearby Parañaque River was so clogged with trash the sludge solidified. The local government never bothered to clean up the waterway.

San Miguel, which has spent nearly P3 billion the past few years dredging the Pasig, Tullahan and San Juan rivers, brought in its equipment to clean up the Parañaque River. The landing strip will not flood again.

This brings to mind the P300 billion government spends each year on flood control. San Miguel cleaned up the major rivers using only one percent of that amount, including purchasing the dredging equipment.

Congress should hold a public hearing on where the flood control money went. But then, maybe they won’t.

The airport terminals have suffered from power failures the past years. It turns out, the Meralco substation once dedicated to supply power to the airport is now also used by the huge adjacent property developments. This causes the power supply to fluctuate and damage sensitive equipment.

San Miguel has convinced Meralco to build a new substation entirely for the airport’s use. In addition, San Miguel is installing a 20 MW uninterruptible power supply facility to serve the airport.

Several times the past few years, airport services were shut down because of lightning alerts. San Miguel is acquiring lightning dissipator technology to solve this problem.

To reduce passenger processing time, San Miguel is installing biometrics-based technology to get travelers through the gates using their own phones. The antiquated baggage handling system will be completely replaced.

To improve the efficiency of plane movements, the terminal assignments of the airlines will be reconfigured. This was originally planned to be completed before the end of this year. One domestic carrier complained about the costs of transferring. Ramon Ang graciously moved their deadline to March 1, 2025.

Over the next few months, the MIA will be a better place.