Taking commercial flights enables Rody to check NAIA facilities

DAVAO CITY – President Duterte’s occasionally taking commercial flights when traveling between Manila and Davao City, where he opts to spend his weekends, will have unintended benefits.

Even if he has taken up residence at the Bahay Pagbabago (formerly Bahay Pangarap) inside the Malacañang complex, he vowed to regularly come home to this city.

Sen. Ralph Recto said yesterday that by taking commercial flights, Duterte would be able to personally check on the improvements done at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

“If he becomes a suki (frequent customer) of NAIA, then he can see for himself if services are being improved. He will also see firsthand the things which need to be done,” Recto said.

“This will have at least 37 million unintended beneficiaries,” the senator said, referring to the expected number of passengers who will use NAIA’s four terminals this year.

Recto said President Duterte will be able to find out for himself “if x-ray machines are working, if toilets are clean, if queues are short and move fast, if air conditioning works, if baggage carousels are moving and if there are enough taxis for passengers.”

“Tapos na rin ang tanim-bala (Bulletplanting is over),” he said, referring to the scheme wherein bullets are placed in the luggage of passengers as a means of extortion.

Recto believes that with the President as a regular NAIA user, congestion around and above NAIA will also be addressed.

“With the right mix of incentives and occasional invectives from Digong, NAIA can transform from world’s worst to best,” he said, referring to Duterte by his nickname.

He conceded that “these problems will take time and money to solve but if you have the President experiencing the inconveniences, then surely work will be done at a faster pace.”

The senator said the government has enough money “to keep NAIA’s ceilings from falling down or air conditioners from conking out.”

The government collected P10.4 billion from NAIA passengers and airlines last year, according to Recto.

Out of this, the government netted P5.44 billion: P1.22 billion as its 20 percent share from gross income, P1.27 billion in tax payments and P2.94 billion in net profit.

The P550 international terminal fee and P200 domestic terminal fee paid by passengers accounted for about a third of NAIA’s gross income.

In addition, NAIA is a “major collection point” of travel taxes.

Bulk of the P3.85- billion travel tax collections in 2014 were paid by passengers who boarded flights in NAIA, Recto said.

Travel tax rates range from P2,700 for a first class passenger, P1,620 for an economy class passenger and P300 for an OFW dependent.

Recto also pointed out that a significant portion of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ P6.6-billion gross income in 2015 came from NAIA aviation activities.

Back to Davao

Meanwhile, Duterte arrived here past midnight yesterday on board a private jet.

The President did not travel to Ulan Bator, Mongolia for the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting and opted to come home for the weekend.

He sent Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. to Mongolia for the event expected to be attended by at least 53 leaders from Asia and Europe.

Duterte reportedly does not want travel abroad yet as he is still on his third week as president.

He earlier said that he would want to spend time tackling the domestic problems of the country before making his debut in the international gathering of leaders.