The scandal blackened the whole medical profession before the world, our export of doctors and nurses suffering the consequences.
A nation of cheats, we are being dubbed anew: in the pilots being churned out of our aviation schools. No corresponding media hype as yet here, but the devastating effects are already being felt.
“India has virtually blacklisted some of our aviation schools amid reports of cheating in certifying the number of flying hours required for flying courses.” So disclosed Benhur Gomez to Punto, as carried by our banner story Wednesday.
Gomez is one of the founders of Omni Aviation Corp. (Omni), among the first locators at the then Clark Special Eco-Zone and a well-established aviation school with world renown.
Gomez has warned that because of these cheats, prospective student pilots from other countries are being dissuaded to come to the Philippines.
According to Gomez. China alone will need 20,000 more pilots in the next three years. But because of malpractices of some aviation schools, the country is squandering its opportunities as the most viable training ground for the Chinese.
Gomez noted that the Philippines is only some 1,700 kilometers away from Shanghai, while the US is about 15,000 kilometers away and Australia, 7,000 kilometers.
“The Philippines is the most convenient, inexpensive and culturally acceptable training ground for Chinese aviation students,” he reiterated his statements at a recent aviation schools forum in Shanghai.
It pained Gomez to hear one foreign airline executive described pilot licenses being issued in the Philippines as “mere bubble gum” even as the Chinese government bared plans to send students to train in aviation schools in the US and Australia.
Gomez is urging the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to probe all these reports of malpractices by some of the country’s aviation schools in issuing certifications on the number of flying hours of students way above the actual hours spent for “private pilot courses” which are basic requirements for commercial pilot course.
Yes, the deterioration of quality in pilot training in Philippine aviation schools needs to be arrested before it is too late – when the integrity, and therefore the concomitant credibility of the country as a solid training ground for international pilots break to pieces.
Of another kind but still important is the probe ordered by Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan on the reported rampant lewd shows staged by bars along Fields Avenue and other areas in the city’s entertainment district.
“No one will be spared, if found guilty of degrading the image of our beloved city anew,” Pamintuan declared.
The mayor has ordered the different departments of the city government to review all business permits issued to establishments as an initial move to identify the legality of their operations. This will also allow a special task force created by the mayor to monitor businesses violating national laws and local ordinances.
Pamintuan also took exception to the wrong perception of Angeles City held by certain officials of the Aquino administration.
Clearly misinformed, Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jess Robredo reportedly asked Pamintuan recently to stop human trafficking in the city.
“I told Secretary Robredo that we have no problem on human trafficking in our beloved Angeles City,” Pamintuan said, “And that his figure of 1,000 bars here is way off the mark of only 230 bars which are closely monitored.”
Still, to make sure, Pamintuan said he has instructed Senior Supt. Danilo Bautista, city police director, to “conduct a follow-up investigation to determine if there is a laxity on the part of his officers who are expected to enforce laws against lewd shows.”
Yet another probe was called for by Angeles City Councilor Jay Sangil urging the city government to intensify its monitoring operations on internet cafes operating near schools and churches.
Sangil said some internet cafes are being used as front for e-Casinos, other internet-based gaming and “possibly illegal gambling” hence he is calling on Mayor Pamintuan “to order concern offices of the city government to do their job of checking and monitoring these establishments.”
“The future of our youth is at stake here, so we can do no less in making sure that distractions from their studies , especially of the patently immoral kind, be obliterated,” Sangil said.
Probe. Probe. Probe. May all be taken to their full completion, the errant punished, the city and its citizens all the better for it.
