THE good news: the law creating the Civil
Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) will be signed in
Malacañang by President Arroyo at 10 a.m. today.
The bad news: the creation of the CAAP would
lead to the streamlining of the Air Transportation Office (ATO)
and result in the replacement of scores of current employes by
highly knowledgeable technical people in the next three months.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Edgardo Angara
and Rep. Monico Puentebella, is expected to upgrade to
international standards ATO's facilities and personnel by giving
it authority to spend its own income of nearly P3 billion a year
for its own operations as the renamed CAAP.
Deo Deocampo, ATO head executive assistant,
said they are now adopting guidelines set by the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), helped along by ICAO
consultants, in preparation for making the Philippines compliant
with international aviation standards and regaining its Category
1 status.
The United States Federal Aviation Authority
(FAA) downgraded ATO last year to Category 2 following findings
that the aviation body lacked many requirements prescribed by
ICAO for a Category 1 status.
Earlier, Transportation Secretary Leandro
Mendoza, who was made concurrent ATO officer-in-charge following
the downgrade, said he would try to get back the Category 1
status within three months by fast-tracking the process of
upgrading the infrastructure and modernizing the libraries
housing various documentations.
He was also tasked to upgrade ATO's ageing
facilities and to procure radars, communications and
navigational facilities to put the aviation office at par with
its Asian neighbors.
Deocampo, however, said ATO has yet to hire
check pilots, regular pilots, aircraft engineers and other
technical personnel because it cannot set salary rates for these
technical positions until the CAAP becomes law and gives it the
authority to disburse its own income.
Deocampo said some ATO oldtimers who would
not qualify for jobs in the CAAP setup will have to go while the
office hires replacements from the ranks of veteran pilots,
aircraft mechanics and engineers. "That's the way it goes, there
are good news and bad news whenever there is an ensuing big
change in any organization," he said.
Deocampo said Malacañang has invited to the
signing the bill's sponsors, DOTC officials, representatives
from the US Embassy, commercial airlines, air taxi services,
chartered services and the head of the Manila International
Airport Authority, Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority,
Subic International Airport Authority and the Diosdado
Maca-pagal Airport Authority.
ATO will be represented by executive director Daniel Dimagiba,
Deocampo, and Andy Vassalote, project manager of the
Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management.
- Jay Chua
