HE said — SHE said

The recent Xiamen Airline fiasco a couple of weeks ago was an accident waiting to happen at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

It seemed ridiculous at first that Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Ed Monreal would posit the best solution to avoiding similar accidents in the future would be constructing new airports to replace the Parañaque site.

It has been taken over by developments outside and within its fringes. Unless government and a new investor could find ways to expand the country’s major airport, the Philippines has no chance of improving its gateway if it would not consider moving the airport out of the metropolis.

The NAIA’s runway design could no longer host the present volume of plane arrivals like it did efficiently in the 1980s and some parts of the following decade. Renovations and constructions of additional terminals could only give the airport a facelift but they could not have improved the volume of departures and arrivals which are the primary functions of an airport.

The NAIA’s scissor-shaped runways effectively become just one stretch if something goes awry. This was proved by the Xiamen plane’s skidding off one of the tracks and into a muddy lot that rendered the NAIA hapless in accepting and sending off flights that its operation had almost halted for two days.

“The Bulacan airport, however, has a promise of completion in five years.

It did not help that the NAIA management had no procedure to quickly extricate the plane off the runway to allow the arrival and departure of other planes.

Monreal knows of offers to build new airports and used the Xiamen disaster to seemingly project a solution quicker than the extraction of the Chinese plane. Genius, isn’t it?

It was only last April when government approved 20 infrastructure projects, including a $14-billion international airport proposed by the country’s largest firm by revenue, San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

Despite government critics blasting the $180-billion “Build, Build, Build” program President Rodrigo Duterte wants pushed on Chinese money, the Philippines is being touted as one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. But expanding, upgrading and building new infrastructure with the help of the private sector could not be started if the country will not have an efficient air and sea ports operation since everything starts there.

These projects so far include bridges, dams and roads. A $957-million Subic-Clark railway connecting the Philippines’ two freeport zones and other major economic hubs on the main island of Luzon is also in the pipeline.

Two airport projects have received green light from government before mid-year. Aside from SMC’s airport project in Bulacan, an unsolicited proposal projected to cost government nothing, also proposed is another airport in Cavite’s Sangley point through a consortium that reportedly included Solar Group’s Wilson Y. Tieng and tycoon Henry T. Sy Sr.

Of the two, the proposed Bulacan airport seems the more impressive.

If it pushes through, the SMC-funded airport aims to compete against the region’s top airports like those in Japan, Korea and Singapore. It could become the country’s prime gateway if plans do not go awry.

While the NAIA is dealing with overcapacity everyday with an estimated 37 million passengers each year, it has only come out of the world’s worst airport list. But it as the best it could do and will no longer be able to become one of the best gateways unless government could expand it. But it would mean the demolition of many exclusive villages around the NAIA which government could not afford.

It is estimated that two years from now, the NAIA will be dealing with 49 million passengers. Just imagine the present queues and figure out how the airport would look like in 2020.

The Bulacan airport is envisioned to have four parallel runways, with a provision for two more.

The proposed Sangley airport, also unsolicited and envisioned to compete with the gateways in Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore, could not seem to compete with that. Its construction, however, is still welcome as more new airports would effectively decongest the NAIA.

The Bulacan airport, however, has a promise of completion in five years. It’s a wink of an eye for a project this massive.

New highways have been built to connect to this project but train, expressway and even ferry services are also said to be in the duct to help accommodate 100 million passengers every year until it grows to 200 million per year. It is expected to withstand demands for better service for many decades when the NAIA could not anymore.

Monreal is lucky to have these in the pipeline by the private sector. He had an opportunity to pick up some talking points when blame for his inadequacy arose due to the Xiamen disaster.

They call themselves “riders.” This group of recognizable men — political leaders, celebrities — likes to take road trips on motorbikes.

One of them, Sen. JV Ejercito, recently sat down for a chat in the wake of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) mess. He wanted to share his advocacy for a massive railway system for the country which he believes has taken a long time in coming.

Stuck at the airport in Davao for 20 hours, Ejercito no doubt had plenty of time to dwell on (or stew over) one of the major problems besetting our nation.

The experience, he told the few scribes at the same table, strengthened his resolve to push for the construction of better airports and a national railway system. “My dream is to have a railway built all the way up to Matnog (Sorsogon) that is connected to the Samar and Leyte provinces by ferry,” he said.

“This is a matter that we can no longer ride out until, as they say, the worst is over.

Claiming to be “the only one in the Senate pursuing an advocacy for a railway system and infrastructure,” Ejercito has got ideas up his sleeve as, I think, our Transport and Public Works officials do, too.

Ejercito does what he can in his capacity as senator, but as I have learned lately from conversations with these officials, a common goal, commitment and teamwork, if possible, will go a long way in getting things moving.

The problem with airport upgrade and capacity has been recognized for years now. When that embarrassing survey result came out naming NAIA the fifth worst airport in the world, President Rodrigo Duterte had the ill luck of being the one to have to address the issue.

The Duterte administration fortunately buckled down to work and got the Filipinos’ chins up in no time as a Skytrax survey found that ours was one of 10 “most improved” this year.

We got there by the skin of our teeth at 10th place. Whew.

And then the Xiamen aircraft fiasco happened.

Like a supertyphoon, it flooded government anew with issues that needed immediate attention. The capability of airport officials came into question. The whole country’s readiness for emergencies got floodlights. The need for bigger, better facilities shot to the stratosphere.

And because these things take time (even if administrations of the past had done their duty and given infrastructure development due attention), the current leadership’s many headaches just got another strain of migraine.

One can relate, indeed, to the President’s “constant pain.”

Authorities have known for a while that the NAIA has reached its peak, handling 42 million passengers in 2017, way above its maximum capacity of 35 million passengers annually.

Some reports say this number is expected to reach possibly 50 million by 2020.

So now it is (once again) abundantly clear that government is being asked to walk the talk. Enough planning, in other words and get moving.

New international airports are needed badly and this government’s “Build, Build, Build” thrust fully supports this end goal.

A couple of proposals had cropped up sometime this year, targeting government’s desire for a quick, viable and cost-effective solution to the need for bigger airfield capacity, as well as rehabilitation and expansion of existing terminals.

While Senate gears up for another investigation on the aviation fiasco and we await construction of new airports, Ejercito suggests a twin airport system between Clark International Airport and NAIA.

He also highlighted the benefits of having a Philippine National Railways line that would connect to Clark airport.

In other words, this is a matter that we can no longer ride out until, as they say, the worst is over. The worst, it seems, is here and now.

A quick but thorough strategizing is called for and, if the brilliant minds in the Duterte administration will put their heads together, maybe we can emerge from these chaotic times flying high.