Angara seeks improved airports to drive tourism

Team Pnoy candidate Sonny Angara enjoys a light moment with his young and probably best endorsers–sons Manolo and Javier–during a lull at a recent press briefing held at the party headquarters. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines –  Team PNoy senatorial candidate Edgardo “Sonny” Angara on Thursday called on the  government to immediately  act on the state of local airports, citing his own experience while  campaigning  in the provinces.

“On a recent trip to Bohol, I was dismayed to find out that they had to turn tourists away because they cannot accommodate big tour groups, say, from China and Korea due to flight shortage,” Angara said in a statement.

“This is a nice problem to have in a sense but we should realize that the loss of tourists, brought about by the state of our airports, translates to loss of people who could have poured in valuable currency to the country,” he said.

Angara, principal author of Republic Act  9447 or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Act, noted that some airports in the country have long been due for an upgrade.

Among the issues that need to be addressed, he said, are short runways, runway traffic, night flight capacity and inadequate facilities.

“The tourism campaigns of the government will be for naught if the state of the airports, especially in the provinces which are tourist destinations, remain the same,”  he said..

Angara lamented that the Philippines has been lagging behind its Asian neighbors in terms of tourism shares despite the reported  record breaking number of international tourists, who visited the country in 2011.

With close to four million tourist arrivals in 2011, the country ranks way behind its neighbors—Malaysia (25 million), Hongkong (22 million), Thailand (19 million), Singapore (10.4 million), Indonesia (7.6 million), and Vietnam (6 million), according to the 2012 report of the UN World Tourism Organization.

“The issues surrounding the development of our airports have to be addressed soon. There should be no more excuses. Time is of the essence here,” Angara stressed.