A proposal by Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival to defer entirely the terminal fee increase, or implement it by installment, sounds like a palatable solution for the millions of passengers passing through the Mactan airport.
The Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) board has approved the incremental increase by charging P220 after management of the airport terminal is turned over to GMR Megawide on Nov. 1.
The rest of the P300-amount will be charged on January next year.
The basis for the terminal fee increase is that MCIAA has to cover the half a billion peso loss to be incurred by the airport once the turnover is completed, and to finance improvements needed such as the overlay of the runway.
Airport General Manager Nigel Paul Villarete’s statement that a second public hearing would be held even if they’re not required by law to do so was a sign that the hearing would be ceremonial.
The MCIAA went ahead and approved the higher P300 passenger service charge (PSC) for domestic passengers and a P500 fee for international passengers regardless of how vocal the opposition was to their proposal.
The proposal was more of a public announcement, a quiet one. The first public hearing was announced in a tiny boxed ad in a local daily and in a national paper, buried deep where the public couldn’t notice it.
The so-called public hearing, held tucked away in the Very Important Persons lounge of the airport where special access is needed for a car to enter, took place with only the most determined parties, including news outlets, showing up.
The second hearing , called to make up for the very low-key initial hearing, was held in a more accessible venue in the Waterfront Cebu city hotel, where representatives of the travel industry could say their piece.
But the fee increase was a done deal.
That episode, occuring on the eve of the Nov. 1 takeover of management of the terminal by GMR-Megawide, only underscores the need for transparency of a greater degree that allows citizens to really understand what financial decisions are being made in this mega-investment in public infrastructure.
Archival proposed that MCIAA open its books of accounts, so the public can see for themselves whether the airport operated at a loss or earned substantial revenues.
We would like to see more transparency as well in the way the MCIAA board conducts its meetings, which lately have been held in Manila, far from the prying eyes of the Cebu media.
With domestic and international passenger traffic rising each year, it’s hard to believe that the airport is operating at a loss even if the terminal fees are the same as that of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
In fact, isn’t it because of the rising volume of passenger traffic that the second terminal project is being built in the first place?
No one will argue about the need to improve facilities and services in the Mactan airport, from its overcrowded, shabby terminal to its limited runway, all of which costs money.
But we can use more clarity on the part of the old and new managers to show that increased public and private investment is being done following sound practices of corporate governance and the high standards of President Aquino’s “daang matuwid”.