No relief in sight
THERE are six gates serving departing passengers at PAL’s international Terminal 2. Six gates and one men’s room and one ladies’ room. I don’t know about the men’s CR, but the ladies’ has only four stalls, one reserved for senior citizens.
On Nov. 3 when friends and I waited out our boarding time for a flight to Bangkok, the ladies’ room announced itself with a long queue that I exaggeratedly described to NAIA General Manager Gen. Jose Angel Honrado: “The line to the powder room is one km long.” Not exactly true, but when you have to go, one km formed by other women in similarly dire need to relieve themselves is an eternity!
The line never shortened, it just grew longer. The GM did not return my call, his cellphone just kept ringing (maybe he was in the men’s room in another terminal) until I got the silent message. Nor was I the only one taking pictures of the anxious queue; a tourist, apparently shocked or vexed, took out her camera and started shooting, too.
Sure, some repairs are going on in the building, but try telling that to the hundreds of women who have to wait in line to use the toilet before boarding time: It’s more fun in the Philippines when you have to go take a pee. In contrast, the toilets in the Bangkok airport are aplenty – no terminal fees paid beforehand -- and not only are they numerous (and inviting no long queues) but some of them are actually five-star pretty, like the one beside the Armani duty-free shop.
Now there’s news that Caesar’s Palace of Las Vegas has plans to “redesign the airport and connect Terminals 1 and 2 via a light rail transit.” Hooray! Whatever reasons Caesar’s Palace has for wanting to come to the Philippines and possibly give Macau a run for its money, the ladies who gamble and do not gamble can be so lucky if a new casino, of all things, provides the impetus for our airports to be considerate, thoughtful, and friendly to lady passengers. If our (presumably male) architects, designers, and managers don’t seem to understand human nature, we might count on the builders of casinos to put up more toilets in our airports, where first impressions last and last impressions stay and are repeatedly reborn.