“The selection committee considered Cusi as the most qualified for the position of Director General because of his accomplishments as MIAA chief.”
by Ducky Paredes
If you’re a frequent user of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), you have to notice the efforts made by airport management to ensure the security, safety and convenience of airline passengers. NAIA is managed by the Manila International Airport Authority, which is headed by Alfonso Cusi.
Al Cusi has been brought to the job excellent management skills, among which is that of encouraging people to constantly raise the bar of performance and do their best at whatever they do.
Cusi’s leadership abilities have helped to grow passenger traffic at NAIA over the years.
In 2006, NAIA handled 17.7 million passengers. This placed the airport as the 72nd busiest airport worldwide in terms of passenger traffic. In 2007, the airport handled 20.4 million passengers, placing the airport 59th worldwide in terms of passenger traffic. In 2008, the airport handled just under 22.3 million passengers. Last year, the airport posted 11.4% growth with 24.5 million passengers, thus making the airport the 48th busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic.
Al has also been working on other airports and will have one inaugurated an international airport in Panglao, Bohol in April and another in Misamis Oriental sometime soon.
Even as he was busy helping to make NAIA a premier airport, Cusi also had his eyes cast on going back to his home province of Mindoro and serving his province mates. Thus, he has filed a certificate of candidacy for congressman for the May elections and has actually been preparing for his congressional bid.
Fate, however, intervened. The selection committee has tapped Cusi to head the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The Civil Aviation Authority, formerly Air Transportation Office, is an agency of the Philippine government under the Department of Transportation and Communications responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, economic and efficient air travel. The agency also investigates aviation accidents.
The selection committee considered Cusi as the most qualified for the position of Director General because of his accomplishments as MIAA chief.
Cusi is now torn between accepting the CAA job and pursuing his goal of serving the people of Mindoro as their representative in Congress.
Considering the importance of civil aviation in the general scheme of things (it is vital to national economic growth) Cusi may be needed more at CAA than in Congress.
If Cusi decides to pursue his congressional bid, he would be serving only the people of Mindoro. But if he heads the CAA, then he would be serving more people, not only the people of Mindoro but the whole country, and the world. In other words, Mindoro’s loss may be the nation’s gain.
I personally think Cusi should take the CAA job at this point in his career. It would be much better if he becomes the CAA honcho as he could bring his management abilities to bear on solving the problems of civil aviation in the country. I’m sure the people of Mindoro would understand if he decides not to run for Congress for the time being. After all, the CAA entails an awesome responsibility that covers the entire nation.
And, after a successful stint in the CAA, his constituents could ask him again to consider running for Congress in 2013, after he shall have put the CAA house in order.
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We have a letter: “Let us not swallow hook line and sinker the repeated claim by a president with a Ph. D. in economics, that the Philippine economy has avoided a recession. The GMA administration has been over emphasizing the definition of what constitutes a ‘recession’ using the parameters of developed economies.
“This standard definition states that two consecutive quarters of decline in the GDP constitutes a recession. Since the Philippines did not suffer two consecutive quarters of decline in the GDP, therefore, it did not suffer a recession?
“The miniscule gain in GDP of 0.9 in 2009 is proof (according to the administration) that we did not have a recession. If you are to believe Malacanang, this development is because of the sound economic policies of the administration.
The application of the parameters used in defining a ‘recession’ in the developed economies, should be used with caution when applied to developing countries. In the developed countries, the major chunk of the GDP comes from industrial output and in services. The manufacturing sector decides its output based on factory orders.
“If there is a decline in orders, then a manufacturer simply cuts his output or in extreme cases, completely shut down his factory. In developing countries, the major source of output is in the agricultural sector. A farmer does not produce farm products based on customer orders. Rather, a farmer keeps on producing agricultural commodities to the maximum extent possible without reference to customer orders. For this reason, agricultural output does not often go down with a recession.
“Even in the United States, if one goes by the output on a state-by-state basis, one will readily note that the decline in output takes place in heavily industrialized states like California, Michigan, New York, etc. The heavily agricultural states like Montana, Kansas, Utah, etc. do not suffer the decline in output experienced by the industrialized states.
“While attending graduate school in Boston, there was a symposium on the applicability of economic parameters used by the developed economies in LDCs. I remember that some advocate using ‘export earnings’ or the ‘poverty index’ as the measure of a recession in developing countries rather than the standard definition of two quarters of decline in the GDP.
“In your column, there is an admission by Mr. Neri that there has been an increase in poverty in our country. So I cannot help wondering why Neri did not simply connect the dots and state that our economy has been in a recession as evidenced by the increase in poverty. As in the ZTE case, Neri can only give out part of the truth rather than speak out the whole truth. He cannot displease his patron in Malacanang.
“He is leaving it to the rest of the country to find out the whole truth.”– Hermenegildo C. Cruz, Ambassador (ret.)
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hvp 02.08.10
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