Gordon’s war vs apathy

Days before the scheduled closure of Philippine airspace on May 17, former Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman and administrator Richard Gordon renewed his calls to use again for commercial flights the airport facilities at the Subic Freeport. Funded from a World Bank loan and fully paid during his stewardship of the SBMA, Gordon deplored the sorry plight now of Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) that has been relegated to hosting the American planes in the annual Balikatan military exercises of the Philippines with the United States.

Attending our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Gordon batted for the SBIA as an alternate international airport to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City. Speaking in public for the first time since he lost his re-election bid during the May 2022 Senate race, Gordon focuses his attention and energy as full-time chairman of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) where he has been involved for the past 19 years. Gordon disclosed the PRC still maintains some of its molecular laboratory testing and vaccination centers in Metro Manila and certain parts of the country where there are still rising cases of COVID-19 infections.

As a private citizen, Gordon weighed in to the flight interruptions that crippled the country’s air space one after the other at the height of peak travel season on New Year’s Day (Jan. 1) and on long weekend holidays on May 1, Labor Day. Gordon expressed dismay why the flight diversions on these twin incidents were just limited to Clark International Airport in Angeles City in Pampanga.

The SBIA, he argued, is just located less than an hour away from Clark and accessible through the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx). Like Clark, SBIA was part of the former American military facilities that were turned over to the Philippine government following the abrogation in 1991 of the military bases agreement with the US.

Situated inside the former US Naval Base in Olongapo City in Zambales, Gordon suggested that the SBIA can be used while the NAIA maintenance repair is being done. “It’s about time the original vision of making SBIA the alternate airport to Manila happen. It’s time we Filipinos look at what we have and make good use of it. Otherwise, what a waste,” Gordon bewailed.

With WB loan, he stressed, he undertook the modernization of the SBIA that now has instrument landing system, radars, and other vital airport equipment. Aside from the Balikatan war games, Gordon disclosed, the SBIA is just being used for limited chartered foreign and domestic flights, and in the small plane “training of Indian pilots.”

This has been the fate that befell the SBIA. Designed and has the capacity to operate as an international gateway, the SBIA can produce additional income to the government out of businesses coming from the airline passengers and cargo traffic. Worse, he noted, the SBIA has become a white elephant with huge economic opportunities being lost in terms of jobs and livelihood that it can otherwise generate.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), however, clarified there will be no shutdown of the country’s airspace during the scheduled maintenance repair work next week. Nonetheless, Gordon lauded the CAAP for having shortened the planned maintenance repair from six hours to just two hours. He still believes though it will do well for concerned government authorities to reconsider the “de-listing” of SBIA as alternative international gateway.

In his usual very frank and colorful language, Gordon blamed to “monumental stupidity” in the Philippines why Fedex – which once operate one of its three global hubs at SBIA – left Subic for good in 1997. “It shows the Philippines cannot take care of a major foreign investor,” Gordon quoted what he read from a news article about the exit from the Philippines of this giant American cargo transport multinational company.

The FedEx operations at SBIA from 1995 to 2009, Gordon recalled, involved a fleet of cargo aircraft such as Boeing and Airbus planes, with around 18 flights per day. When the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit Meeting was first hosted by the Philippines in 1996, the big planes of APEC heads of states landed at the SBIA without any hitches, Gordon enthused.

In a related development, Gordon buttonholed Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin during a reception they both attended at the 75th anniversary of Israel held at the Manila Hotel last Friday. In his brief chat with the so-called “little president,” Gordon echoed his concern about the “spoils system” in the appointments to key government posts of allies and supporters of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM).

PBBM was quoted telling reporters on Wednesday he is ready to “reorganize” his Cabinet members. “In a sense tapos na ‘yung OJT (on the job training) ng lahat ng tao and we have seen who performs well and who is – will be important to what we are doing,” PBBM quipped. This coincides with the lapse of the one-year ban for politicians who run but lost in last year’s May national and local elections.

Gordon’s concern particularly pertains to the appointment last week of an ex-Mayor of a town in Antique as new SBMA chairman and administrator. PBBM appointed Jonathan Dioso Tan to head the SBMA for a fixed term of six years. Tan served as mayor of Pandan, Antique from 2010 to 2019.

Gordon himself was a re-electionist Mayor of Olongapo City in 1992 when the late President Fidel Ramos appointed him as SBMA chieftain. Not to demean the person, Gordon swears he does not know Tan from Adam, so to speak. But Gordon underscored the need of the SBMA leadership with strong international linkages if the government can bring the big investors back to SBMA.

“I cannot stand apathy, incompetence. I’m not trying to belittle Tan or anyone,” Gordon swore.

In his usual rapid-fire talk, Gordon echoed his dream to see Filipinos overcome and succeed fighting national apathy. Without filter, Gordon’s war against apathy comes in very strong words.