House pushes for abolition of CAB, franchise for airports

Catanduanes Rep. Cesar V. Sarmiento. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The House committees on government enterprises and on transportation have created a technical working group to fine-tune a bill seeking to abolish the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and transferring its current functions to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap).

House Bill No. 7407 aims to make Caap the central regulatory agency for both the economic and technical aspects of the country’s aviation industry.

The measure also aims to implement more aviation reforms.

“There is no overall regulatory power that sets uniform standards for all airports to follow,” said Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, transport committee chair, in a statement.

Separate functions

Caap regulates the technical functions of civil aviation while CAB oversees the economic aspect of air transportation. Both agencies are under the Department of Transportation.

CAB and Caap’s predecessor, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), was created in 1947. CAA became the Air Transportation Office in 1987 and renamed Caap in 2008.

At the committee hearing last week, CAB chief legal officer Wyrlou Samodio said the structural separation of Caap and CAB should stay because such separation or independence would provide greater efficiency.

Scrutiny

Sarmiento said the requirement for airports to have a legislative franchise was included in the bill to ensure that only operators who were truly capable of complying with the highest standard of aviation would be allowed to operate.

He and other proponents of the bill said they wanted to require closer scrutiny of those wishing to operate airports.