THE country’s civil aviation agency has
started a face-lift of the agency by appointing three veteran
pilots from the Air Force, a move that is seen as the start of a
country-wide overhaul of the Civil Aviation Authority of the
Philippines (CAAP) on the way to recovering its category 1
status.
CAAP director general Ruben F. Ciron
appointed Col. Eduardo C. Batac as chief of the Flight Standard
and Inspectorate Service (FSIS); Gen. Romeo D. Alamillo as
deputy; and Capt. Teodoro Lasmarias as chief of the Air Carrier
Operations Division.
Batac, a veteran PAF pilot used to be a
consultant of the CAAP while Alamillo is a retired PAF vice
commander and veteran pilot with experience in various types of
aircraft, while Lasmarias is a retired PAF and Philippine
Airlines pilot.
The appointment of the heads of three other
divisions – Airworthiness, Licensing and Technical Development –
has been deferred until new applicants have been evaluated.
Those who have been interviewed include 15
key CAAP officials who have been narrowed down to five, namely
Capt. Saturnino dela Cruz, former chief of Aviation Safety
Division; Capt. Elfren Caldoza, check pilot IV; Col. Jose Saplan,
check pilot II; Col. Manuel Villegas, check pilot IV, former
chief of the Air Carrier Operations Division; and Col. Eduardo
Batac, executive assistant III, and former chief technical
adviser and CAAP consultant.
Those who failed the interview are now in
"floating" status.
Helping Ciron screen applicants are members
of the board of directors from the Departments of Transportation
and Communications, Interior and Local Government, Foreign
Affairs, Justice, Finance and Labor.
The CAAP, formerly the Air Transportation
Office, deemed a laggard in the world aviation community, was
responsible for the downgrading of the country to category 2 by
the Federal Aviation Administration late last year. The FAA has
called for the agency to overhaul sensitive agencies and hire
professional check pilots, upgrade of technical skills, increase
salaries to stop the exodus of air traffic controllers and
pilots, and streamline records and documentations of different
CAAP sections if it wants the Philippines to recover its
category 1 rating.
So far, efficient record-keeping has been
achieved, while progress on other fronts has been proceeding at
a fast clip. Ciron said they expect to be upgraded to category 1
rank as scheduled.
Ciron, who holds a doctorate in political science from the
University of the Philippines, was appointed two months ago to
CAAP. He said the revamp would streamline CAAP operations to
keep pace with commercial al aviation. A recent study said CAAP
is hobbled by several factors, among them the inability of its
key technical personnel to upgrade their skills, the lack of
oversight to keep track of income from various income-generating
agencies, and the inability to attract highly technical persons
due to low salary scale. – Jay Chua
