More Cebuanos should sit at MCIAA Board

Del Mar (CDN FILE PHOTO).

CONGRESSMAN Raul del Mar has proposed amendments to the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) Charter so more Cebuanos can sit in the body’s Board of Directors.

Del Mar, who represents Cebu City’s 1st District, said he wants to ensure that Cebuanos run the MCIA and all other airports as may be established here by having a majority of Cebuanos sit in the MCIAA board.

“Cebuano directors would be more deeply committed than non-Cebuanos to carry out their tasks to modernize the airport towards making it at par with the best airports in Asia,” he told Cebu Daily News.

House Bill No. 687, principally authored by Del Mar, seeks to amend Section 6 of Republic Act No. 6958 or “The Charter of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.”

The bill was approved by the Joint Committees on Government Enterprises & Privatization and Transportation, chaired by North Cotabato 1st District Rep. Jesus Sacdalan, in a hearing last Oct. 18.

Del Mar proposed to increase the members of the MCIAA Board of Directors from 11 to 13 to include as ex-officio members the mayor of Lapu-Lapu City, where the airport is located, and one more member from the private sector to augment the existing four.

The congressman also proposed to require all appointed board members and officers of the authority to have been residents of the cities of Cebu or Cebu province for at least three years preceding their date of appointment.

“Being Cebuanos who patronize the airport, they are more familiar with the specific particular requirements to provide the best services to the passengers. Cebuanos can best run the airport located in Cebu,” said Del Mar.

Del Mar is also pushing to reduce the terms of office of the general manager and all appointed board members from four years to three years.

He said this was to synchronize their terms with the term of the President, who appoints the secretaries of transportation, tourism, finance and justice, and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) director general as ex-officio members.

This will also be in sync with the terms of the governor of Cebu and the Lapu-Lapu City mayor, who are also ex-officio members of the MCIAA board.

MCIA General Manager Nigel Paul Villarete, who was present during the hearing last week, said he reported MCIAA’s position on the bill.

“I have reported MCIAA’s position on the bill, registering no objections to it,” he said.

Villarete said the MCIAA supports the proposed provisions, subject to existing laws and the wisdom of the legislature on these provisions.

The MCIAA is a government-owned and controlled corporation and is an attached agency of the Department of Transportation.

The authority’s corporate powers are exercised by and vested in a board of 11 members, which is currently composed of a chairman, a vice chairman and nine members.

Meanwhile, Edwin Ortiz, head of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (CCCI) tourism committee, said it was good to know that Cebu was ranked as fifth best island in the world while the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) was named 14th best in Asia.

“What they can do is further uplift their service so guests keep coming back,” Ortiz, who also sits as a director in the Department of Tourism’s Tourism Promotions Board, told Cebu Daily News.

This, he added, will complement the number of tourism establishments on the island.

“I think we have a good number of resorts, hotels and restaurants already while some are still being constructed,” said Ortiz.