Editorials:

Illustration by Jimbo Albano

Budget alert: Stop aviation shortcuts

ON this paper’s front page, veteran aviation reporter Recto Mercene details quite clearly how a piecemeal approach to improving the infrastructure for civil aviation has caused huge headaches to stakeholders—not to mention raised the risks for accidents—and, at the same time, torpedoed plans to boost productive sectors of the economy, like tourism.

Two years ago, Mr. Mercene wrote a series of articles in this paper about how a breakdown in the aeronautical telecommunications service, known by the acronym AFTN—a crucial component of the overall air-safety complex—had forced the Air Transportation Office (ATO) to issue a Notice to Airmen (Notam) and force air-traffic controllers to lengthen the separation periods between flights, in order to reduce the risks of accidents because the downing of the AFTN had cut the “talk” part of the communication sequence between men on the air and those on the ground.

The airline operators’ council raised a howl when the AFTN couldn’t quite be put together after more than two weeks, because the longer separations between flights landing on the premier airports were causing delays and, since it was also toward year-end, the airlines fretted that such a dismal setup would be compounded by the expectedly heavy holiday traffic.

These days, a new problem has arisen, just when Christmas is approaching again. Because of the outcry over the AFTN, officials had to obtain pronto a new system, a P180-million system called the Air-Traffic Service Message-Handling System.

But unfortunately, they did not look at the other parts of the system, i.e., they solved the “talk” portion but not the part of the system to “see” the aircraft from afar. The radars do that role of seeing, but as Mr. Mercene’s latest story says, a new “Notam” has been issued with the downing of the Tagaytay radar.

As he explained, “the intermittent problems with that [Tagaytay] radar impacts on airline traffic in major airports—Naia 1 and 2, DMIA, Cebu Mactan International Airport—because it is part of a system that allows traffic controllers to ‘see’ aircraft up to 250 miles, thus allowing them to sequence arrivals in a systematic and safe manner. In a sense, as sources explained, the downing of the radar has forced controllers to choose safety over speed, by lengthening the gaps between landings.”

The Tagaytay complex is linked by microwave to Manila, where it feeds an array of radar scopes at the Area Control Center (ACC)—scopes needed by air controllers to direct daily some 2,500 commercial, military, civilian and executive aircraft operating within the country’s area of responsibility. About 700 domestic and international aircraft actually land and the rest are overflights bound to neighboring airspaces.

The Air-Traffic Service Message-Handling System installed two years ago enables the ATO controllers to have instantaneous communications with counterparts all over the world. And yet, as explained by our reporter’s sources, effective communication is but one aspect of an efficient air-traffic control system; the heart of the whole, complex procedure rests on the array of radars that covers the entire country.

So what’s wrong here? Simply this: the government has invoked funding constraints to push the Tagaytay radar, purchased in 1984, way beyond its service life of 12 years, “making do” with continued repair and maintenance for the last 23 years. Now that would have been laudable on its face, because it means that like the Cubans who can still keep their trusty Russian cars running after 30 years despite the US embargo, our own aviation workers are good at preserving equipment.

Yet, we all know that in a world of fast-paced technological progress, we simply cannot plod along with a 23-year-old system. Especially now that it is showing signs of giving out completely.

There are reportedly plans for a new P80-million radar, according to officials, but in the meantime—reckon with this—due to the system’s age, three of the six radar scopes at the ATO building that are linked to Tagaytay have gone kaput, and it remains unclear why these had not been replaced, since each radar scope reportedly costs only P4 million each, or a total of P12 million.

What is P12 million for radar-scopes parts? What’s P80 million for a totally new radar system? Peanuts in a country where allies and local executives can simply be waved away after a meeting with a total P160 million in “assistance” and “goodwill.”

Peanuts, in a country that pins its hopes—as proven by recent economic-performance data and the well-meaning advice of the best foreign experts—on a boom in the tourism industry and allied businesses, including retirement havens in various parts of the country, the economic value of which we extolled in this same space a few days ago.

With air traffic rising by 23 percent and the country seen to meet targets of 3 million arrivals this year, rising steadily and robustly in the next few years, why, oh why should we take so much time deciding whether or not to give priority in the budget to a totally new radar system or even the intermediate solution of P12-million radar-scopes parts.

Sure, we can praise, besides the technical people who have kept the Tagaytay system running long beyond shelf life, the persevering air controllers for making do with the remaining scopes—which are not actually in use but are only made as a “guide,” while they direct air traffic by “conventional” methods—meaning, spacing aircraft at 15-minute intervals instead of the three-minute separation under “positive” radar control.

But “making do” has its limits. And there’s only so much a human being can do to compensate for a machine’s breakdown. And there’s a limit to the patience of the stakeholders—especially the airlines that will eventually say the delays are no longer tolerable as Christmas approaches, and the passengers who will get frustrated by delays or will skip this place rather than risk safety.

If we earnestly desire to be global, we have to rise above this “making-do” mentality because, beyond reflecting an innate Filipino virtue (they call it diskarte and, supposedly, it’s what endears many an OFW to foreign bosses), it can also be perilous. There must be no shortcuts here, for if we truly want to bring in more people, we can’t scrimp on anything that will make travel safe, speedy and comfortable.

ON this paper’s front page, veteran aviation reporter Recto Mercene details quite clearly how a piecemeal approach to improving the infrastructure for civil aviation has caused huge headaches to stakeholders—not to mention raised the risks for accidents—and, at the same time, torpedoed plans to boost productive sectors of the economy, like tourism.

It’s been well documented—not that anyone ever questioned the idea—that when it comes to human interactions, men are from Mars, women are from Venus.

The bad news is that the collection target of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for October fell short by P6 billion. And the good news? BIR Commissioner Lilian Hefti will not be replaced simply because she failed to meet her monthly target. 

Sway: A crusader laid to rest

Police investigators are now pointing to Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar as the possible main target of Tuesday night’s bombing at Congress. As to why he was slain remains unclear, although the motive appears to be somehow linked to Basilan politics or even Akbar’s own tussle with the very terrorists he used to support down south.

Opposition members in the House of Representatives have only themselves to blame for the anemic response to their frantic calls for public outrage over the junked impeachment complaint against President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo filed by lawyer Roel Pulido and endorsed by Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis.

There is no substitute for quality loans—as shown by the massive losses of American banks in the subprime-loan crisis—and this is
demonstrated once again in the stellar performance of Security Banking Corp. (SBC), whose 19.96-percent return on equity (ROE) for the first nine months this year shoved it on top of the banking field.

How often do you pray? Of course, when I ask people if they pray, most often they would say yes.

Eagerness is a good attitude toward prayer because it converts that which is originally considered obligatory into a way of life. I always say that the importance of an endeavor is evident on how much time we spend on it. When you actually pray often enough, praying becomes a relationship with Christ.