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THE
government should give more weight to the interest of
the whole country, and not just a “small group of local
carriers,” in deciding on the opening of the Clark and
Subic airports to more foreign airlines, the American
Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (Amcham) said on
Thursday.
Rob Sears, Amcham executive director,
said adopting a policy of open skies—or “pocket open
skies” as described in some quarters—in these two areas
is not just about drawing more foreign tourist arrivals
but also about easing the travel of overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs).
Sears said, right now, OFWs have to wait
for up to a month for available flights to be able to
get a plane back to the
Philippines.
“It’s not only the tourists. We are also
talking about the number of flights available to
Filipino overseas workers. That is another important
aspect. There are not enough flights that these workers
can take if they want to come back,” Sears said.
Sears was reacting to Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita’s announcement that Malacañang
is no longer inclined to issue an executive order that
would give more rights to international carriers to fly
to
Clark and Subic.
“What do you want to do? Do you want a
policy that helps the country as a whole or just one
particular company or a small group of companies? I will
go for helping the majority of the Filipinos,” he said.
The local carriers—Philippine Airlines,
Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit and Pacific East Asia
Cargo—have, however, explained that they were opposing
any further changes in Executive Order 500-A because the
proposed EO 500-B that pushes for pocket open skies does
not demand reciprocity from the countries whose carriers
want unlimited freedom to fly to that region. Jaime
Bautista, PAL president and chief operating officer,
said in an earlier interview that PAL supports an
open-skies policy that is “fair, equitable and
reciprocal,” which EO 500-B does not ensure.
The local carriers earlier also urged
the open-skies advocates to “stop using” the OFW card in
their arguments; they said these advocates had
conveniently omitted the fact that foreign carriers
which enjoy huge subsidies from their governments had in
the past “made a show” of giving OFWs low, competitive
rates, only to arbitrarily jack these up later.
The Amcham, however, is firm on pushing
open skies. In the case of tourist arrivals, Sears said
records have shown already that with an open skies,
foreign guests that landed in the two international
corridors in Central Luzon went up to over 500,000 from
only 47,000 individuals.
Sears said Amcham and the other foreign
business chambers will continue to advocate for the
further opening of Clark and Subic to international
carriers.
On Wednesday, Ermita said President
Arroyo did not see the need to issue EO 500-B, which
would have lifted the restrictions on the entry of
foreign airlines to Clark and Subic.
The Philippine Travel Agencies
Association (PTAA) deferred comments, saying it is still
studying the matter.
Earlier, the PTAA said the restrictive
air policy of the government is causing the country
about $350 million in annual tourism revenues because of
the lack of plane seats. |
