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DOTr eyes creation of new bodies to regulate airports, railways
By TED CORDERO,GMA News The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is working on a proposal to create separate agencies that will regulate airports and railways.
During the 48th Philippine Business Conference and Expo on Thursday in Manila, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said that the first thing he noticed when he assumed the helm of the DOTr in June was that “there are many agencies that are both operators and regulators.”
Bautista mentioned the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which is both an operator and a regulator.
“We are proposing the enactment of a Philippine Airport Authority so that we will separate the [regulatory] functions of the CAAP,” the Transport chief said.
Republic Act 9497 or The CAAP Act of 2008 bestowed the body with quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers, as well as corporate attributes.
The CAAP, as a regulator, is mandated to prescribe rules and regulations for aircraft inspection and registration, prescribe the corresponding rules and regulations for the enforcement of laws governing air transportation, and determine charges and/or rates for the operation of public air utility facilities and services.
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Bautista said that he tasked Undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez with studying the possibility of creating a separate body for the railway sector’s regulation.
“We have a lot of rail projects….we should also have [a separate] authority to regulate the rail sector,” he said.
Apart from the existing railway systems such as the Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2, Metro Rail Transit Line 3, and Philippine National Railways, the government has a pipeline of ongoing big-ticket railway projects, namely the MRT-7, Metro Manila Subway, and North-South Commuter Railway.
Moreover, Bautista expressed his intention to split the Philippine Ports Authority's operational and regulatory functions.
“I have requested the undersecretary for maritime to look at it. To work on how we can separate these. [Whether] we need a law to separate the operations and regulations of ports,” he said.
In July, Bagong Henerasyon party-list Representative Bernadette Herrera-Dy filed House Bill 1400, which aims to separate the regulatory and commercial functions of the PPA by converting it into Philippine Ports Corp. and transferring its regulatory functions to the Maritime Industry Authority. — VBL, GMA News