|
THE
officer in charge of the Air Transportation Office (ATO)
on Wednesday urged President Arroyo to sign a bill that
creates the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
(Caap), giving autonomy to the aviation body so funds
for a full radar coverage of the country could be made
available.
Daniel Dimagiba, ATO OIC, aired the
appeal a month after he was appointed to his present
post that was vacated by former Assistant Secretary for
Air Transportation Nilo Jatico.
“If President Arroyo signs the bill, the
Caap would have the funds needed to put up additional
long-range radars to beef up existing ones,” Dimagiba
said.
At present, the country’s long-range
radar is in
Tagaytay
City. It is supported by terminal, or medium- range
radars, located in
Subic, Clark, Ninoy
Aquino International Airport and Cebu, Dimagiba said.
The long-range radar has a reach of 200
miles while a terminal radar can “see” only up to 60
miles.
He added that long-range radar takes
control of aircraft entering the country’s area of
responsibility and hands over these aircraft to
respective terminal radars that would eventually guide
the airplanes to their destination airports.
A terminal radar handles airplanes on
final approach.
Owing to lack of funds, the Tagaytay
radar is still being used, although its operational life
of 20 years has elapsed. A lot of funds are being spent
to maintain the radar owing to the frequent repairs and
upgrading it needs.
It is now being upgraded and would be
back in operation this month.
Dimagiba said that funding is needed to
set up long-range radar in Laoag City, for aircraft
entering the northern portion of the country and another
one in Palawan, for those airplanes coming from the
west.
The Tagaytay radar handles aircraft
coming from the east, such as Guam, Hawaii, the
Micronesian territories and the
United States.
A fourth long-range radar is envisioned
in
Davao City
or General Santos City to take care of aircraft entering
or leaving in the south.
The Caap would have at its disposal
about P3 billion in yearly income and a small portion of
this could be set aside to finance the acquisition of
long-range radars.
Dimagiba said radar coverage of the
whole country remains imperative because the planned
Communication, Navigation, Surveillance-Air Traffic
Management (CNS-ATM) system would not be on line until
2013.
The CNS-ATM is a worldwide system that
would connect the Philippines to the rest of the world’s
aviation system in a single, seamless operation,
utilizing dozens of orbiting satellites for
communication and traffic control. |
