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Open-skies policy seen to benefit Clark realtors

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]

Lobby groups calling for open skies at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) represent vested interests, said the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (NAITAS) in a statement on Tuesday.

NAITAS Chairman Emeritus Robert Lim Joseph said these vested interests stand to directly benefit from a full liberalization, as most of them are owners of prime real estate near the Clark economic zone.

Joseph revealed that prospects of DMIA becoming a major aviation hub have raised the value of properties in Angeles, Pampanga, especially those located near Clark, and the Subic International Airport in Olongapo.

“Many of them [open-skies proponents] have acquired properties there and they are now lobbying hard for the President to issue Executive Order 500-B that would fast-track the development of Clark and Subic airports as an aviation hub so they can sell their lots at a good price,” Joseph said.

The opening of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), Joseph said, increased the land value in the area, and according to the Bases Conversion Development Authority, the Subic-Clark corridor will spur more investments and greater economic development in Central Luzon.

“We need airline people, not real-estate speculators, in helping shape the country’s aviation policy,” Joseph stressed.

“Many of these people lobbying for the unilateral grant of air rights to foreign carriers flying into Clark and Subic have acquired properties along the Clark-Subic corridor and they now want to unload them at a huge profit,” he added.

Joseph said that the coalition, led by former Tourism Secretary Narzalina Lim, lobbied hard for the signing by MalacaƱang of EO500, which gave foreign airlines unlimited access to DMIA.

He said that the EO was quickly superseded by EO500-A, which effectively restricted the initiative and emasculated the open-skies policy.

EO500-B would restore some of the liberal policies set forth in the original EO500.

“What I can’t understand is their resistance to bilateral negotiations that would grant reciprocal air rights to the negotiating parties,” he said, referring to Freedoma to Fly Coalition. “I am now beginning to suspect they prefer the unilateral air services agreements because of the perks these pacts offer.”

Joseph said the difficulties of OFWs to book flights for their job destinations could be remedied by providing them with charter or extra flights, adding the matter was a plain attempt to muddle the dispute over the feasibility of an open-skies regime in the local aviation sector.

“We should not confound the problem. What we ought to focus on is the undue competition that has placed our carriers at a disadvantage,” Joseph said. -- Francis Earl A. Cueto

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