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By Mark Louie P. Roxas, Correspondent
CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga: The open skies policy
at the Clark airport has once again been raised by an advocacy group
to solve the worsening lack of flights for the increasing number of
overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
Renato Diaz, chairman of the Center for
Strategic Initiatives said that there is an urgent need for foreign
airlines to schedule chartered flights between the Diosdado
Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), the Middle East and the
United States.
President and CEO Victor Jose Luciano of Clark
International Airport Corp. (CIAC) called anew to President Arroyo
to sign Executive Order 500B that would allow foreign air carriers
to operate in the Philippines especially airline from the Middle
East for the benefit of OFWs. He added that the shortage of airline
seats for OFWs is seriously affecting the country’s ability to
supply the rapidly increasing market for Filipino skilled workers.
Luciano and Diaz said that various companies
that contract labor have been complaining of lack of seats and
airline flights. They expressed fear that the Philippines will lose
to other countries deploying to the Middle East simply because they
cannot book flights to meet contractual obligations.
On April 4, President Arroyo led the
inauguration of the Expanded Terminal of DMIA that would increase
passenger capacity to 2 million annually. CIAC is embarking on an
ambitious project for the development of the Terminal 2 project that
would further increase passenger capacity to 8 million annually for
DMIA.
“The government should allow more flights to
and from Asean airports to DMIA in Clark to alleviate the shortage.
This will allow the OFWs the flexibility of getting connecting
flights in Asean airports to their final destinations.” It should
be noted that the President has authorized the establishment of a
one-stop processing office for the documentation requirements of
OFWs at the Clark Freeport thus making it more convenient as the
point of departure for most OFWs.
Diaz also said flights to the Middle East are
limited due to air rights wherein the Philippine Airlines does not
use their entitlements and instead are “selling these to other
foreign airlines under code sharing arrangements,” thus reducing
the available capacity.
Diaz has proposed a policy change so that local
airlines may utilize their entitlements. The policy should be that
if they did not fly for three past six months then other local air
carriers might be designated by the government to use these
entitlements.
When no local carrier is able to provide the
equivalent flights then the foreign carrier can be granted these
frequencies and any income should go to the Philippine government
and not to the local airline, according to Diaz.
Presently, at least 1,000 recruited OFWs failed
to leave daily and are facing cancellation of their labor contracts
due to the shortage of flights.
Luciano expressed fear that if the flight
shortage continues, thousands of Filipino workers would lose their
chance to work in the Middle East and US.
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