Arroyo home from US visit, lands at NAIA 3

Posted on June 30, 2008

President Arroyo and her official party on Monday arrived from their 10-day visit to the United States at the newly opened Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.

It was almost 3 a.m. when Philippine Airlines flight PR 105 touched down at the NAIA and deplaned its passengers on Terminal 3 as the inaugural arrival flight on the brand new international passenger terminal.

The inaugural flight was timed to coincide with the arrival of the President, the flight’s most prominent passenger, as she capped her working visit to the US.

Upon deplaning, the President was accorded arrival honors at the foyer where she was greeted by top government officials and well-wishers of private passengers who shared the flight with her.

The President then inspected the different facilities of the arrival area of the new terminal, as she went through the regular process arriving travelers go through at the airport. From the foyer, she went to the immigration section, from which she went to check out baggage from the carousel which was rushed in time for the inaugural arrival.

The President was supposed to check her own luggage out of the new carousel but her aides took care of it instead.

After that, she witnessed the other passengers go through the same process, showing at times some irritation and questions about the processes of the airport as she went around the new arrival area.

The President then inspected the terminal’s waiting area for well-wishers of passengers which features a spacious waiting area with booths for food and duty-free shopping.

Not so fast

The inaugural, however, does not signal the actual start of operations of the airport.

NAIA3 task force chief Mike Defensor said they can start the operations for domestic travel with PAL Express and Cebu Pacific in as early as two weeks, while airport general manager Alfonso Cusi said it may take three.

International travel may start in six months time. However, government has yet to hear from both flag carrier PAL and the Allied Airlines which groups foreign carriers currently using Terminal 1 which of them will use the new terminal.

If PAL sticks it out with Terminal 2, then the allied carriers will get Terminal 3.

Legal questions

The opening, however, is not without legal questions.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the government cannot take full ownership of the new terminal unless it has satisfied the Supreme Court’s requirement of compensation for PIATCO, the contractor in the nullified contract for Terminal 3.

Cusi said they really intend to operate the airport as the P3-billion proferred amount of the airport that needs to be paid out to PIATCO before the government can take full control of the airport.

However, this amount being a proferred amount, is not yet a final value, which means the government may still owe PIATCO more depending on the final determination of the new terminal’s value.

Defensor on the other hand maintained they can now operate the airport so long as government does not not exercise “acts of ownership” over the airport. Defensor could not go into the nitty gritty of this matter but gave an assurance that no matter how complicated this maybe—it will not stand in the way of the government operating the airport.

Defensor noted, in its decision nullifying the NAIA3 contract awarded to PIATCO, the Court did not specificy or define what are acts of ownership are over the airport.

Defensor, however, also disclosed that common friends and some congressmen have sent feelers from PIATCO on a possible amicable settlement of the ownership dispute. RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News

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