Part Two
DAVAO CITY—The office of Davao Rep. Mylene J. Garcia-Albano has been the center of attention among business and government leaders, following her filing of the bill to create the Davao Airport Authority three years ago.
The filing of the bill came at heightened agitation to allow the Davao International Airport (DIA) taste its own fruit of labor, being one of the most used airport facility in the country and the premier international airport in Mindanao.
For the government and business leaders, DIA was being too much of a Good Samaritan to share its income to the rest of the 85 airports nationwide, while still receiving flak for various issues. Some of the latter refer to lack of amenities, like lack of comfort rooms, need for tissue papers in current washrooms and the growing congestion in the terminal building.
The council has also pushed for the inclusion of payment of terminal fees in the payment of plane fare to ease movement of passengers inside the cramped terminal building. The DIA was able to collect P227 million in terminal fees in 2010, P267 million in 2011 and P284 million in 2012.
Only in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) and the Mactan International Airport (MIA) in Cebu are terminal fees already prepaid with the plane ticket. Incidentally, the two airports are also managed by their respective airport authorities.
With the Davao airport already handling about 10,000 passengers daily a decade ago, a prepaid terminal fee could declog certain sections of the airport and unburden loaded passenger as they move around the building.
Albano’s arguments
GARCIA-ALBANO, who represents Davao City’s Second District where the Davao airport is located, filed House Bill 6693 in 2014. She said the bill aims to maximize the opportunities opened by the open- skies declaration. In arguing for the bill, Garcia-Albano said the adoption of policy was also the best time to enhance the quality of the services and competitiveness of the DIA, officially named Francisco Bangoy International Airport. This would happen only “by creating a body that [will] principally undertake the control, management and supervision” of the airport.
She added the bill’s approval will pave the way for the creation of a board, which will have full control of decision-making and budgeting. It will also have the power to levy and collect dues, charges, fees or assessments for the use of the airport, invest its idle funds and exercise police authority.
As with the Naia and the Mactan airports serving as gateways, she said the Davao airport “also serves as the gateway to the subregional trade block known as the East Asean Growth Area, which is the center of economic cooperation in Southeast Asia”.
Cebu model
THE proposed Davao airport authority seeks to “encourage, promote and develop international and domestic air traffic in the Davao region as a means of making the region a center of international trade and tourism”. Only in 2006 did Davao City hosted its first international meeting, the Asean Tourism Forum, the biggest travel and tour event in the region, and earned the admiration of Asean tourism leaders for its warmest hosting ever.
When Cebu attracted direct international air linkage outside of the Naia, it was admired by many areas with their untapped airports, including Davao City. It was largely acknowledged Cebu pulled a feat by marketing itself as an island in Pacific and dissociating itself from being part of a politically troubled Philippines.
A recent posting at the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry web site said “visitors find Cebu a better option for connectivity to other destinations”.
“The Department of Tourism in Central Visayas disclosed that visitors no longer have to fly to Manila to explore other tourist destinations as Cebu is well connected to other parts of the country,” an article on the web site said. “New direct flights from Cebu to Davao, Palawan and Boracay [via Caticlan] starting in April are expected to boost tourism in southern Philippines.”
No progress
SUSAN Gomez Simpol, Garcia-Albano’s director for political affairs and constituent services, said the bill may be expected to stay longer in Congress.
“We received a position paper from the Department of Budget and Management recommending further study of the bill,” Simpol said in a text message last Friday to the BusinessMirror.
The House of Representatives’s Committee on Appropriation was also waiting for the position of the Department of the Interior and Local Government on the exemption from real-property tax requested by Garcia-Albano’s bill.
The bill has since been refiled as HB 1371 in the 16th Congress (2013 to 2016) and again as HB 2002 this year.
It was similar to what Congress did when it deferred deliberations last year of the similar proposal for the Laoag International Airport as it asked proponents to submit a 10-year feasibility study on the income profile, citing declining visitors’ arrivals through recent years.
To be concluded
Image credits: BusinessMirror photo