|
PANGLAO,
Bohol—The Philippines will sign in December a
multilateral agreement with Asean member-countries to
pave the way for an open-skies regime within the region.
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza made the
announcement in a brief interview here, adding that
China,
Korea, Japan and the United States are also interested
in joining the grouping, making it earn the name “Asean
plus four.”
Mendoza
said he has been elected chairman of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Transport Ministerial
Meeting, which will hold its meeting in Manila by the
end of the year.
With the
new group in place, he said the Asean would be declared
“open skies,” together with the four new comers, so that
the Philippines could expect a windfall from the
estimated 500 million tourists the member-countries
represent.
“Ang
maganda dito sumali ang [What is beautiful here is
the joining of] India, China, Korea at Japan. So we
could expect 500 million tourists a year with the Asean-plus-four
market,” he said.
He added
that the Asean ministers are looking to a single Asean
market in place by 2015, which would usher in a single
aviation market and eventually replicate the European
Union setup of a single economy.
In
preparation for the event,
Mendoza
said it is inevitable that the premier airport be
relocated to the Diosdado Macapagal International
Airport (DMIA) in Clark Field, Pampanga.
“We
could not expand our capacity because we only have a
single runway at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport
[Naia], so it is inevitable that we have to transfer to
Clark. We have
nowhere else to go.”
Alfonso
Cusi, Manila International Airport Authority general
manager, agreed with Mendoza, saying that a transfer to
Clark would provide room for growth, aside from
improving safety.
Mendoza
and Cusi did not give a timeline for the eventual
transfer but said that it should be done “soon.”
He added
that the DMIA is one of the gateways that would connect
the whole country to an “aeronautical highway” running
down the spine of the archipelago from Laoag in the
north down to Jolo in the south.
According to studies, the combined capacity of the Naia
1, 2 and 3 terminals would not be enough to accommodate
the expected influx of tourists with the formation of a
single Asean market, so there is a need to transfer to
the DMIA, where two runway systems are in place and
additional ones could be laid down without the need to
expropriate private lands.
Mendoza
said the soon-to-be opened Naia 3 becomes immaterial
because the issue is the number of runways to
accommodate more flights, which other countries in the
region are now enjoying.
“Look at
what happened to Asean. Thailand just opened a new
terminal with 45 million capacity,
Malaysia,
25 million, and Singapore, 125 million.”
In this
connection,
Mendoza
said the President did not approve the proposed
Executive Order 500-B, which aims to provide “pocket
open-skies” regime to Clark or Subic, saying that
approving an open-skies policy anywhere in the country
would be unconstitutional.
“We also
have to protect our own interest,” he said.
He added
that the country could not engage in the open-skies
regime because the Naia has very limited capacity,
having only one international runway.
Mendoza
said that in place of pocket open skies, the government
is expecting the implementation of the “Asean open-sky”
policy that would allow member countries full access to
any capital city without the need for bilateral
agreements.
This
early, he said initial discussions on the policy focuses
on the implementation of the application of Freedom
Rights 1 to 4, which allow carriers access to any member
country without going beyond that country to pick up
passengers to be brought to another country. |
