It’s rare for prominent businessmen to openly criticize the government for fear of retribution, given the vindictive nature of politics and politicians here, but tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan simply had enough on New Year’s Day.
Several hours into his flight from Tokyo to Manila, his plane was forced to reverse course and return to Japan after Philippine flight navigation systems failed for several few hours, disrupting hundreds of flights and stranding thousands of flyers across the globe.
An exasperated Pangilinan, on his verified Twitter account, shared on Jan. 1: “6 hours of useless flying but inconvenience to travellers and losses to tourism and business are horrendous. Only in the PH. Sigh.”
The tweet quickly went viral and was widely carried by news outlets, with some comments praising Pangilinan for his forthrightness.
But it seems the tweet offended some powerful individuals, their unusually sensitive onion-skin apparently bruised at the perceived slight.
The following day, Pangilinan’s tweet was nowhere to be found. Instead, the businessman followed up with new tweets praising the government for helping him get home and an offer to provide assistance of his own.
Presidential honeymoons usually last a hundred days or so but it seems this administration expects a much longer period.
— Miguel R. Camus
CAAP-ability put to test
Infrawatch PH convener Terry Ridon summarized in two words the recent air traffic navigation mess that grounded over 300 flights: “international embarrassment.”
As such, he said the officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) should “offer to resign their posts to the President in the soonest time.”
The think tank demanded for a “factual report” of what happened and “high-level accountability” for the incident that brought inconvenience to some 65,000 passengers on Jan. 1, who were left wondering why their flights were suspended or redirected after the country’s air traffic navigation facility went down.
Following the technical glitch, Ninoy Aquino International Airport and other gateways soon became crowded as anxious travelers waited for flight updates. Que horror! They were supposed to go home after a holiday break but the system failure changed their plans.
CAAP said the “outdated” system went offline after its two UPS (uninterrupted power supply) failed. The government-owned and -controlled corporation was able to restore normal operations on the evening of New Year’s Day but the airlines have yet to fully recover all the flights.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the air traffic management fiasco called for the need to build a backup system, one that is placed in another location, to ensure this would not happen again. A feasibility study for this project is set to be conducted.
But Ridon said “the need for upgrades does not explain” the operational failure. “[Because] inasmuch as it is a technical problem, it is also a failure in leadership to determine whether existing upgrade protocols are sufficient to avoid [Jan. 1] incident,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, having a backup system has become imperative now. The question is: how long will it take for this project to turn into reality? Let’s see!
—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad
PNB comeback
Retired central banker Felix Enrico Alfiler is returning to the boardroom of Philippine National Bank after a nearly two-year hiatus.
His nomination as the bank’s 15th board member took effect on Dec. 29, 2022.
“Director Alfiler is a seasoned banker and his experience in finance and the economy will bring additional depth to our board,” said PNB chair Federico Pascual.
Alfiler had been an independent director of PNB from Jan. 1, 2012 to April 26, 2021. He bowed out upon reaching the nine-year cumulative term limit for independent directors set by corporate and banking regulators. He was previously vice chair of PNB, working in tandem with then chair Flor Tarriela.
Presently, Alfiler chairs PNBRCI Holding Co., Ltd., PNB International Investments Corp. and Summit General Insurance Corp.
Alfiler played a key role as the country’s monetary policy expert at the Economics Sub-Committee of the 1985-1986 Philippine Debt Negotiating Team, which negotiated with over 400 private international creditors for the restructuring of the country’s foreign debt. He was assistant to the Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines and then a director and head of foreign exchange department at the new Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. He was likewise senior advisor to the executive director at the International Monetary Fund.