Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto today called for the “clustering” of all airport-related “performance guarantees” pledged by government agencies operating in NAIA and other major gateways for 2016.

Under the new budgeting scheme, agencies are required to enumerate “performance indicators” and match each with the specific appropriations they are getting.

However, the performance targets of the different agencies operating in airports such as the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration and Philippine National Police are listed in their respective budgets.

Recto said placing all “airport-related promissory notes” would result in easy monitoring if the target accomplishments are met or not.

In addition to placing all performance guarantees in “one box”, Recto also called “for a change in some targets and in putting in targets where there is none.”

“Sa ngayon kasi, walang performance guarantee kung ano ang maximum time delay ng arrival at departure ng flights. Or kung ano ang on-time percentage ng mga byahe. Pwede bang ilagay ito?” Recto said.

Recto said all performance guarantees as listed in the national budget should be displayed prominently in NAIA and all major airports “as part of customer service of the agencies and for the benefit of the public.”

For example, the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) has pledged it would clear incoming and outgoing passengers “within 40 seconds” upon what it describes as “primary inspection,” Recto said.

“So there’s a ‘gone in 40 seconds rule’ in Immigration. Well and good. But this covers, I think, the moment you present your documents to the Immigration counter. Mas maganda siguro mailagay kung gaano ang maximum na tagal sa pila,” Recto said.

For the Bureau of Customs (BoC), it has pledged that its personnel would process “international passengers and crew within 30 minutes of baggage presentation,” Recto said.

“But this benchmark is only for those whose baggage will be inspected. To the credit of the BoC, it has established “Nothing to Declare” green lanes in all port of entries through which most passengers pass,” he said.

Recto said based on the PNP’s performance guarantee, personnel detailed in airports should be able to respond to “all distress calls within 15 minutes.”

“The response time inside airport terminals should be faster. Pero kung OFW ka at nahold-up ka ng riding-in-tandem half-kilometer away from NAIA, dapat ang responde ng pulis ay sa loob ng 15 minutos, o singbilis ng pizza delivery,” Recto said.

Recto said the Office of Transportation Services, a Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) agency, has pledged to man “90 percent of 178 screening centers round-the-clock.”

“What’s probably lacking in their targets are that the maximum time a passenger should stand in queue and the percentage of baggage X-rays working. What should be the average security inspection time? That should be put in there,” the senator said.

Recto said even the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) should have NAIA-specific targets. “The MMDA has pledged to clear road obstructions within minutes. Dapat ganun din sa lahat ng mga lansangan papunta sa apat na terminals ng NAIA.”

Recto also called on the Department of Tourism (DOT) to amend its performance guarantees for 2016, “to include the provision of more tourist information, brochures, and maps in NAIA and setting the time ceiling in paying the travel tax.”

“Mukhang kulang ang tourist leaflets sa NAIA. Dapat din itakda kung ilang minuto ang pila kapag magbabayad ka ng travel tax sa TIEZA booth,” Recto said.

He said even quarantine checkpoints set up by the Deparment of Health (DOH) in various airports should have “measurable performance standards.”

Recto the Manila International Airport Authority should likewise “divulge its menu of doables.”

“Ilang toilets ang dapat malinis, ilang bagong lounging chairs ang dapat ikabit? Ilang Wi-Fi hotspots ang dapat gumagana? Ilang oras ka dapat maghintay bago makakuha ng taxi? Mahirap naman na 1 oras lang biyahe sa himpapawid pero sa pila ng taxi, doble nito,” Recto said.

He said the NAIA though has imposed a 12-minute maximum response time to medical emergencies and three-minute rapid response to security threats.

But while these “on the ground accomplishment goals” will be easy to spell out, the complicated one, “but nonetheless, the most important, is to benchmark punctuality of aircraft movements.”

“I know that setting a maximum ceiling on flight details will be hard, as there are factors that must be reckoned with, like weather, but it will be good if we set a limit. Hindi pwede yung five- to six-hour delays. We shouldn’t accept them as the new normal,” Recto said.

The DOTC has a proposed budget of P36.87 billion for 2016, with an additional P635.89 million for OTS while the PNP has a request for P88.29 billion; DoT, P2.95 billion; BoC, P3.21 billion; BoI, P778.31 million.

TIEZA, MIAA and the Civil Aeronautic Administration of the Philippines are fiscally treated as government corporations whose operating budgets, drawn from their incomes, are not approved by Congress.

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