BEFORE hiking off to our main topic, best wishes to Pagcor Hyatt branch manager Basil Pernia on his retirement last Monday from corporate life after over 30 years in dedicated service.

Hitherto, “Boss” Basil would be facing the more “engaging” role of “babysitter” -- to his and wife Lanie’s grandchildren -- but in the much urbane environment of the US of A.

Nevertheless, the word from Hyatt is that a lot of people were saddened to see Boss Basil go, given his enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism as a co-employee and superior, traits very rare indeed in a place such as a casino.

But there comes a time that a choice has to be made and nobody can fault Boss Basil for choosing family over other things at this point in his life.  His best years, after all, were spent in the service of others. Von voyage and mabuhay, Boss Basil!

***

But for the urgency of the issue at hand, I would have moved this piece to another date. And the issue, presidential “troubleshooter” Mar Roxas, is just lying at your doorstep, at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), formerly the Air Transportation Office (ATO), which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).

For the sake of national pride, national security, the security of our airspace, the credibility of Philippine-trained and Philippine-based pilots, good governance and better, P-Noy and Sec. Mar’s “tuwid na landas” advocacy, they should immediately implement a total revamp of the CAAP, beginning with the demand -- yes, demand -- for all of their appointees, from director general Ramon S. Gutierrez and ADG Elmer Peña of the FSIS to resign from their posts effective immediately.

I have nothing personal against these people, dear readers. But unless P-Noy appoints people better qualified for the job of managing the highly technical (and graft-ridden) agency like CAAP, there really is no chance that we would be upgraded to “Category 1” status by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union.

And unqualified I may also be to pass judgement on their competence, people in the airline industry I talked to these past few days regarding the many issues that continue to trouble the CAAP, can only expressed incredulity, if not downright amazement, that DG Gutierrez and more so, ADG Peña, remain bullish that we would soon be upgraded to Category 1 status, from the present Category 2 status we got from the FAA in 2008 (followed by the EU in 2010).

Our persistent failure to pass the FAA safety standards and regulations is of course very costly, dear readers, because no Philippine-based carriers (mainly PAL) can enter US and European airspace.

The downgrade, which also reverberated around the world, forced the government and Congress to put their acts together resulting in the passage of RA 9497 in 2008.

Despite this, however, the prevailing expert opinion is that there is no way we can pass the periodic review, with the FAA coming over this month for another, because no serious preparation has been made by the DOTC/CAAP to address the issues raised by the FAA/EU/ICAO.

Sa totoo lang, ang nagbago lang daw sa CAAP ay ang pangalan (mula sa dating ATO) sapul nang maipasa ang RA 9497 noong 2008, pero ang mga sistema at pamalalakad d’yan, bulok pa rin!

I am not just hazarding mere conjecture and baseless comments, Pres. Noy and Sec. Mar. You may want to order an independent (and secret) performance audit of the CAAP from our local aviation experts ahead of the FAA visit to realize your appointees at the CAAP are just trying to play “monkey” with you.

There too are the copies of official documents landing in my lap from various sources pointing to the conclusion that we are headed for another embarrassing meeting with the FAA this month.

Indeed, last November, at the height of the brouhaha over international reports that the NAIA is the “worst” airport in the world, Mr. Li Peng, ICAO regional (Asia) officer in charge of reviewing our communication and navigational system (CNS), made a report warning that our outdated (“vintage” was how the report puts it) ‘Eurocat 200’ system would likely result to a situation of truly horrific proportion -- more air crashes and collision in Philippine airspace.

At this point of course, the presumption is that P-Noy and Sec. Mar are already aware of the ICAO report? Kung hindi pa, eh, “napaikutan” na naman kayo, tsk,tsk,tsk!

But if remedy is already available as regards our vintage CNS/ATM system, the culture of corruption and incompetence still prevalent and widespread at the CAAP is one problem that can only be addressed by the sacking of DG Gutierrez, ADG Peña and their ilk at the agency.

Aside from the questionable manner by which ADG Peña has been suspending pilots’ licenses where due process is not properly observed, he and DG Gutierrez are the subject of several complaints, two of them pending before the Ombudsman and another pending before the office of Sec. Mar.

At hindi lang dahil sa ipinakitang kapabayaan sa nangyaring pagbagsak ng isang eroplano sa Parañaque City ilang araw bago ang Pasko noong isang taon kaya inirereklamo ang mga itinalaga ni P-Noy sa CAAP, mas matindi ang bintang ng katiwalian, ‘di ba, DOTC Usec. Rafael Antonio M. Santos? After all, extortion and favour-seeking are both serious crimes.

I am continuing with my research as to issues hounding the CAAP and hopefully, a much comprehensive special report that I am preparing would help the readers and our officials realize the necessity of why a total overhaul of the CAAP should be on top of the government agenda, minus of course the greed that attends every transaction in that agency.

But to restate: P-Noy and Sec. Mar would be doing the country and their platform of “tuwid na landas” a good deal of service by removing the current leadership at the CAAP.

Maawa po kayo sa bayan, Pang Noy.

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