WITH the way the President has been giving away money, a billion here and a billion there, to policemen, soldiers, and victims of man’s inhumanity to man and woman, replenishment is at hand.
The biggest budget in history has been passed, a mind-boggling P3.7 trillion and not a centavo less (P30,000 per citizen). Three laws that require massive funds now make free irrigation mandatory, free hospitalization for the poor with or without a PhilHealth card, and free enrollment in colleges and universities under CHED.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, the busiest lawmaker bar none, announced the good news at our Bulong Pulungan Christmas party. After all, those were her pet bills that she shepherded through the mill, an Olympic-size feat for the petite senator that some quarters are already predicting will be Manila’s next mayor. Her comment? “I have no voice,” pointing to her throat.
More good news, for travelers who have wished they could travel without setting foot at NAIA.
Airport GM Ed Monreal has reported that within the last five months, two runway exits were constructed, bringing the total to four. And we thought we had only one runway! As it turns out, we have one runway for international flights and one for domestic use, the two meeting like the arms and stem of a capital letter T.
This thing about airport congestion for lack of runways is not unique to NAIA. At the Beijing airport recently, our plane bound for Manila waited 40 minutes for the all-clear for take-off. Three took off one by one before ours as four more sat patiently behind us. It was a long wait, but better delayed than insecure.
Speaking of airplane and airport safety, I asked CAAP deputy director general “Skee” Tamayo (whose name I erroneously misspelled as Taylo in this space last week), how Digong flies to Davao every weekend – by PAL, on a private plane, certainly not in an Air Force helicopter? What the President’s pilot gave me was a disarming smile, and no words.
(Jullie Y. Daza)
