PRESIDENT Arroyo directed chief presidential legal counsel
Sergio Antonio Apostol to draft an executive order on air liberalization that
would enable several airlines from one country to operate and fly in the
Philippines under a single or an already existing air agreement.
Arroyo, during the Philippine Economic Forum at the
Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City, said this would form part of the long awaited
Executive Order 500-B which would allow foreign airlines to exercise fifth
freedom rights at Clark and Subic airports.
Fifth freedom right is the right of an airline of one country
to carry traffic between two countries outside of its own country.
The President said the inclusion of this provision in the
proposed EO was arrived after discussions with the stakeholders of the Diosdado
Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark in Pampanga.
"The liberalization will, as agreed by the Clark
stakeholders, will consist in allowing airlines that are not necessarily the
ones nominated by the countries with whom we have an air service agreement," she
said.
"For instance, our air agreement with Russia specifies
Aeroflot but Aeroflot is no longer in operation so we don’t need another air
agreement just for another Russian airline to come in. That will be the impact
of the EO," she added.
In 2006, President Arroyo issued EO 500 which granted
unilateral air rights to foreign carriers operating at the DMIA in Pampanga and
the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) in Zambales.
This was amended by EO 500-A, which withdrew the fifth
freedom and restricted the operation of budget airlines in Subic and Clark.
Under the directive, budget airlines must first be designated by their
respective countries. They can no longer fly to a third country.
Some industry players and analysts claimed the policy
reversal will affect investment decisions and may forego opportunities to boost
tourist arrivals.
The said measure is part of efforts to convert the DMIA into
the premier airport in the country, which the President wants done within the
year.
Arroyo, during the same forum, reiterated her order to the
Clark airport authorities and Trade Secretary Peter Favila to "accept
unsolicited proposals for BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer)" for the development of
the DMIA. She said that while government may have funds to be poured into the
development of the DMIA, "we have enough private sector interest in Clark that
it need not be the government who will do it."
The President also directed the Department of Transportation
and Communications to conduct a feasibility study for the conversion of the
Alaminos airport in Pangasinan from an agricultural cargo landing field into
tourism airport.
She said the Alaminos airport could double as a tourism airport to receive
tourist and visitors to the North. – Jocelyn D. Montemayor
