Ronny Zamora may be my favorite uncle and Teddyboy Locsin, one my mentors, but with all due respect, I care about ugly restrooms. I care about dirty carpets, broken chairs, starvation and Boy Boy Bawang sold in the souvenir shops.
I care about ugly, grumpy people who bark at passengers who forget to write their “address abroad” on the immigration slips, or customs officials who ask for bribes.
I care about beggars hounding passengers on their way to their cars.
I don’t care about greens or birds or tacky Filipino restaurants lining the Greenbelt-like outdoor setup.
Honestly I don’t really care who fixes the airport as long as they take care about the basics, and most of all, the restrooms please.
Kung wala talagang budget, banyo lang please, para nang awa. Bigyan mo kami ng kahihiyan, NAIA.
P.S. I also stay at the Four Seasons and I care about these things.
Teditorial: NAIA mess
Designer Kenneth Cobonpue and his team will hold a press conference on Thursday to clarify the issues concerning their design for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport-Terminal 1 (NAIA-1). In tonight’s Teditorial, Teddy Locsin Jr. defends DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas’ decision to set aside the group’s plan and prioritize the facility’s safety. – The World Tonight, ANC, November 29, 2011
Bloggers branding NAIA the worst airport were homeless gays.
Naturally, they complained the NAIA women’s toilets are inadequate, there’s nowhere to lie down, no kneepads in restrooms in any case.
But so long as an airport performs immigration and customs functions, who cares if it does not do anything else?
Well, people with no authority who told Pineda, Layug and Cobonpue they could remake the airport.
Nobody, who is anybody, notices the airports they pass through. My best friend, mining magnate Ronnie Zamora has travelled the world. After immigration, he said, the airport is just a blur when Ritz, Four Seasons, Mandarin or Shangri-la whisk him away.
What about the toilet? He has done his business in the plane.
Travelers flying economy, in tight seats, with smelly toilets, want to get as far from the plane, as fast as they can.
I killed the idea of doing anything to an airport that already works well.
But no, the finicky insist on a brand new airport we cannot afford or the old one remade according to Architectural Digest.
Mar Roxas has publicly proposed various prospects. He publicly considered a brand new, Changi-scale airport in “Famfanga.”
He publicly talked of selling NAIA to pay for the same.
Now, he has openly decided to spruce up NAIA without turning it into a garden paradise as some suggest. Trees and birds are bad for planes.
He has conducted his thinking, and made his decision, in full public view and hearing. How much more transparent can you get? Locsin made the airport, who best can restore its original state?
Come now Cobonpue, Pineda and Layug — 3 famous interior designers and furniture makers.
Layug pioneered postmodern furniture. Cobonpue designed Angelina Jolie’s baby’s bassinet. Pineda has his admirers. They have been working 8 months on a redesign and redecoration of the airport, with plenty of shrubs.
Why? No, not the shrubs, but why did they do the work?
They had no contract, or even formal contact with, former DOTC Secretary Ping de Jesus or his successor today.
Who put them up to it? The 3 designers fingered but did not name Cabinet members with no connection to DOTC or the airport.
Justice in this country being what it is today, where possibility is fact, suspicion probable cause, proposal a crime, and probability proof beyond reasonable doubt, I accuse the Cabinet members who approached Cobonpue and company of redecorating and refurnishing their homes for a deep discount or free, hinting the 3 could redo the airport.
I move for a subpoena to issue to Pineda, Layug and Cobonpue to reveal the names of the officials who put them up to undertaking unauthorized work.
I move for search warrants to look for furniture coming from Pineda, Layug and Cobonpue in the homes of these Cabinet officials.
I move for a subpoena duces tecum for documents showing deliveries of deeply discounted or donated furniture to them.
Without regard to the returns, I move for the detention of the officials who approached Pineda, Layug, and Cobonpue with a false commission to redo the airport they had no authority to undertake.
I want a watchlist hold-departure order on these furniture avid Cabinet men in case they escape with the furniture.
Keep well, thank you.
Originally published at Chuvaness.com. You can comment here or there.