Globalization and international airports

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For a country with more than 7,000 islands and with millions of Filipinos living abroad, there should be plenty of international airports across the country.

While most people have elaborate definition of globalization, I have a simple one: Globalization = Mobility. Mobility of people, capital, technology, culture, sports and music across the country and across the globe.

Such mobility of people, their goods and services across islands, countries and continents, is facilitated by various modes of transportation – land, sea and air. For long distances covering hundreds or thousands of kilometers away, air transportation is the most cost effective and time saving. For the Philippines, an archipelago and geographically detached even from its nearest neighboring country, the presence of various airlines – both domestic and international, is very crucial. By extension, the presence of various international airports is equally crucial. International airlines can only come in if there are good and reliable international airports that can handle their huge airplanes and huge volume of passengers and cargo.

For a country with more than 7,000 islands and a population of nearly 92 million (12th largest in the world), and an estimated 8 million to 9 million living abroad, there should be plenty of international airports across the country. Currently there are only nine: 4 in Luzon (NAIA, Clark, Subic and Laoag), 3 in Mindanao (Davao, Gen. Santos and Zamboanga) and 2 in the Visayas (Mactan-Cebu and Kalibo). Some of these international airports do not get frequent international flights, like the one in Kalibo.

I think more international airports should be developed out of existing domestic airports. In particular:

1. Tuguegarao airport to serve the Cagayan Valley region and neighboring provinces in the Cordillera region.

2. Legaspi or Naga airport to serve the Bicol region which has a big population too and has several island-provinces like Masbate and Catanduanes.

3. Iloilo airport to serve Panay Island’s four provinces plus the island-province of Guimaras. Kalibo airport serves mostly the tourists going to Boracay island. It’s not a big and modern airport but it has a long runway that can accommodate big airplanes, unlike the airport in Caticlan.

4. Bacolod-Silay airport to serve Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental provinces. The former is among the five biggest provinces in the country in terms of population outside of Metro Manila.

5. Tacloban airport to serve the Eastern Visayas region and its six or seven provinces.

6. Cagayan de Oro or Butuan airport to serve the Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions, including the island-province of Camiguin and Siargao island. Both islands are famous for tourism.
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By saying international airports, the above-proposed airports need not serve flights going to and from the US, Europe and Australia. What is important is to accommodate flights going to and from the country’s selected Asian cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. One or two flights a week for any or all of those Asian destinations would be enough. And if one is going to several destinations in North America, Europe, Australia-NZ, South America and Africa, all those Asian cities mentioned have direct flights to the big cities of the above-mentioned continents.

Recently, the Regional Development Council of Western Visayas asked the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), formerly the Air Transportation Office (ATO), to open the Iloilo airport to international flights. The Council also told CAAP that it wants to retain at least 10% of the P200 per passenger airport terminal fee. I have been to Iloilo airport several times as my wife is from Iloilo City, and I can say that this airport is modern enough – typical glass and steel structure of modern architectures, and should be able to handle limited international flights. For now, I have several points to make.

One, if a national bureaucracy like CAAP will drag its feet for long, like in deciding whether to allow international flights at the Iloilo airport or not, then local governments will have no way of implementing their collective plan and program. This is another proof that decentralization of political and economic powers is not yet fully implemented. Certain bureaucracies in Metro Manila still decide what is good or bad for those in the provinces.

Two, CAAP gets the entire terminal fee collections of provincial airports. I did not know this before. I thought ATO, now CAAP, gets only a certain percentage from the terminal fee collections from those provincial airports. This is a huge collection, actually. Last year, toll and terminal fee collection was P215 million, and is projected to rise to P236 million.

Three, airports need not be owned and operated by governments. A consortium of private corporations including airlines should be allowed to buy and develop existing airports, or create a new one. Anyway, there are several government agencies that can regulate such privately-owned airports, including the CAAP, the provincial and city or municipal governments, and perhaps the Civil Aeronautics Board, among others.

To help encourage provincial and regional development, let the local government units compete with each other in developing and modernizing their own infrastructure facilities (roads, airports, seaports, etc.), improve the peace and order situation, and even engage in tax competition when necessary. The goal is to attract plenty of investors and visitors who will create plenty of jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for their people.

The continuing centralization of power in the hands of certain national government agencies is a hindrance to the development of some local governments, a hindrance to faster globalization and economic integration of the people in the provinces with other cities and countries around the globe.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions advanced in this article is the author’s own, and may not necessarily represent the views and opinions of THE LOBBYiST, its editors, or its publishers.

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