“We hope he is aware of such woes.”
We can only commiserate with Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista. No doubt, he has made waves in his current post, particularly with his department’s gains in rail-based transportation.
It looks like these gains could be overshadowed by talk that he has not paid enough attention to air transportation, particularly to the mounting woes of our travelling countrymen. If the woes are left unattended, talk that there is regulatory capture in Secretary Bautista’s turf just might overshadow the token efforts of his agency to improve air travel.
The disappointment might be bigger since the public knows that Secretary Bautista was a major player in the air transportation sector, given that he was previously the head of the country’s flag carrier. The public may have presumed that since he is now a public servant, he would side “with the people” when the Filipino flying public encounters problems with airlines, particularly international carriers.
We hope the Secretary is aware of such woes.
Has his air transportation undersecretary kept him abreast of these woes? It appears there are many complaints that have been filed with the quasi-judicial body under Secretary Bautista’s supervision. Many of these cases are similar to the plight of Loreto Simangan, a Filipino who filed a complaint against Japan Airlines (JAL) years ago.
We recall that this case was the subject of a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2008. The High Court reaffirmed that salient provision in the Air Passengers Bill of Rights. That was a classic David vs. Goliath case—a private passenger fighting a huge, well-oiled Japanese airline. Expectedly, the David prevailed.
Now, the Simangan vs. JAL case has a lot of parallelisms with another case now pending before the Appellate Court.
In this latter case, four passengers were denied boarding by the Emirates airline despite having travel documents in order, including valid visas from the Turkish government. After being unable to leave in May last year, the four passengers filed a complaint against Emirates before the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). The CAB— the agency under Secretary Jimmy’s supervision—rejected it.
Complainants filed a motion for reconsideration but again, CAB junked it, prompting them to elevate the case to the Court of Appeals (CA), claiming that CAB failed in its mandate to protect passengers’ rights.
The petitioner’s appeal pointed at alleged “regulatory capture”: “The systemic failure on the part of CAB to go against erring giant airlines is a clear indication of regulatory capture of its agency that has resulted in utter prejudice to passengers,” the appeal read.
“Instead of applying the law and punishing the airline, CAB failed to utilize its regulatory powers against the airlines because it has become beholden to its industry. It is even public knowledge that certain top officials of the agency have a history of being closely associated with the private airline industry,” it added.
Here is the part that should concern Secretary Bautista. The complaint pointed out that a key officer of CAB is the former country head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the Philippines. We certainly hope that the said portion is not referring to Undersecretary Bobby Lim. We hope not, because that could only boost the claim of “regulatory capture” which is unfair to both the Secretary and his Undersecretary for Air Transportation.
But that seems to be the tenor of the complaint. It added: “Notably, IATA is an international trade association established precisely to represent the interests of airlines around the globe. Given this close association with the private airline industry, it cannot be gainsaid that there exist circumstances which raise doubts as to the agency’s capacity to render a fair and impartial ruling. The Supreme Court has consistently held that judges or hearing officers “should not only be impartial but should also appear impartial,” they pointed out.
It appears Secretary Bautista may be caught in a clash between conflict of interest and regulatory capture, on one hand, and passenger’s rights, on the other.
In all likelihood, we can expect the case to reach the Supreme Court as the venue of last resort. We hope Secretary Bautista takes a look at this and addresses it before such allegations taint his accomplishments in his post. (Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
