How else do you expect the rest of the world to react upon hearing Lozada’s story, and tying that in to Ninoy’s own, 25 years ago, which resulted in his assassination at the tarmac?

Add to that the bumbling attempts by the people supposedly in charge of the airport – from the NAIA general manager to the security chief – to explain away what happened under their very noses?

And add to that still the crumbling facilities, the silly procedures, the "palakasan" system and what have you got? An airport that even Filipinos themselves would consider one of the worst (if not in fact the worst) in the world.

In other countries this would have been enough for the people in charge to have resigned, out of a sense of self-respect. Here, as usual, they hang on to power and position.

No shame.

The idiocy of the whole airport authority, including the security system, is shown even when passengers are asked to remove not only their shoes or their belts, but even their watches. In Manila they ask you to do this sometimes; in Davao they require you to do this.

And why, I asked?

Because, I was told, the watches would set off the metal detectors.

Half pissed-off and half amused, I asked the security man: But why don’t they let me take off my watch in a place like Hong Kong? Or Incheon, South Korea? To which I get the same reply: "Well, because here the metal detector will be set off by the wristwatches."

And then I press, the naughty boy in me at work: "Why should the metal detector here be set off but not in Hong Kong or Seoul or Atlanta?" To which I get an exasperated reply: "Well, we are only after your safety!".

But here is the idiotic part: I was carrying a laptop, and no one asked me to take it out of my bag to be X-rayed independently. Some stupid security guy somewhere in our airport security hierarchy believes it important to ask passengers to take off their wristwatches – which is not a widespread practice all over the world – and yet does not require passengers to take out their laptops which IS a widespread practice!

Idiots.

The reason why we get bad marks in the eyes of the world is because we deserve it. We have stupid security procedures as detailed above, and we have stupid "sundo" procedures that allow the Jun Lozadas of this world to be taken down stairways and out via waiting cars. Not to mention "welcomers" who will "facilitate" your passage through Customs and Immigration so that, as in the case of Virgilio Garcillano, there is even no record of your departure or arrival!

We deserve the bad marks.

Here’s what makes me feel even more incensed.

Our government officials – surely even those in charge of airports – travel often. They should – if they are conscientious with their work – use their travel opportunities to observe what is done or not done in other airports. That’s the point I raised about using the snaking lines at Immigration counters, and I was glad to notice that PAL at the check-in counters at Mactan last Monday morning was itself using the snaking lines for check-in for their Fiesta class passengers. Yet it doesn’t seem evident that our traveling officials learn anything from their travels. Even in that aspect, we, the Filipino people who foot their bill, are denied the least of "pasalubongs".

And speaking of airports and X-ray machines, I still haven’t forgotten the fact that Thailand uncovered a corruption scandal involving the sale of X-ray machines to their airport authorities. The supplier paid bribes to government officials to get the contract, but was discovered because its pricing was quite high to make up for the bribes.

Guess what? In the investigation conducted by Thai and US authorities, it was discovered that this same supplier actually bagged contracts in two other Asian countries: China was one, and I guess you can guess what the third country was!

Has anyone ever tried investigating the airport scanner machines supply contract for the Philippines?

We totally deserve our shoddy international reputation.

***

Greetings to the crew of PR 844 that left Cebu at 6:45 a.m. Feb. 13. We arrived a bit early at the Centennial Terminal, and as a result were penalized by having to wait until the gate we were supposed to use was vacated by another aircraft.

Anyway, service was excellent and efficient and the crew and staff had the usual smiling faces that balances off whatever pagkukulang PAL has in other respects. I am looking forward to PAL’s major aircraft rehabilitation program that will result in bi-class flights and more legroom in Mabuhay.