TEARFUL TESTIMONY: Electronics expert Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. was again crying on prime-time television yesterday. Testifying as a witness in a marathon Senate hearing, his anguish was all too clear as he agonized over his being kicked around as a political football.

Lozada has said again and again that he did not want to (1) testify before the Senate and (2) get embroiled in a political game. On those two counts, the opposite is now happening to him.

While some senators were very kind to witnesses (like Lozada) who have something negative to say of the Arroyo administration, they were overbearing, sometimes insulting, when interrogating those who did not contribute to the anti-administration line.

Was it a mistake, then, for Lozada to have testified on the $329-million National Broadband Network contract earlier awarded to the ZTE Corp. of China? Does he regret having taken the dirty job of juggling the terms to accommodate contractors with conflicting offers?

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CANNON FODDER: Since Lozada was so afraid of being caught in a political game, he should not have listened to suggestions for him to supply the Senate information likely to be manipulated to bring down the administration instead of being used for legislation.

The better option for him, I think, was to testify instead before a court of law, maybe the Sandiganbayan. Before that, he could have signed a sworn statement on everything he knew about the NBN deal and given the document to the Ombudsman and the media.

Somebody who really cared for him should have told Lozada that the Senate may not be the correct forum for prosecuting thieves in government and that, by testifying there, he risked being used as political cannon fodder.

The televised hearings confirm that the Senate is not the proper forum for determining the guilt or innocence of anybody linked to an anomaly.

Pero nandiyan na yan. Lozada's crying at this point is too late.

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DOWNGRADE: Meanwhile, we have here some notes on the airline industry that may help explain why the Philippines was downgraded to Category 2 recently by the US Federal Aviation Authority.

This lower rating means that our Air Transportation Office is deemed not equipped to ensure the safety of aircraft landing in and leaving the country. This adversely affects Philippine flag carriers' expanding air service to the US.

Come April 14, 2008, US-based Hawaiian Airlines will start four direct weekly flights to the Philippines using wide-body Boeing 767 300ER jets. Each aircraft can carry 624 passengers and hundreds of kilos of cargo one way on the Honolulu-Manila route.

As travelers get used to Hawaiian Airlines and passenger volume zooms, the company could dramatically increase its weekly flights. From its four weekly flights, the company could increase flights to 10, 20, 30 or more a week.

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CRIPPLING EFFECT: This could happen since Hawaiian is not restricted from mounting unlimited flights between the US and the Philippines and beyond. Under the RP-US air transport agreement, American carriers can mount “Fifth Freedom” flights or flights beyond the two destinations.

Thus, Hawaiian can pick passengers from Manila, make a stopover and pick traffic in Honolulu and then fly onwards to any US state or third country. It can also fly to any point in the Philippines without restriction on frequencies, capacity and aircraft type.

On the other hand, Philippine Airlines has 33 flights a week, but these are divided among five US points. It also has to compete with mega carriers Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and other Asian airlines.

As things stand, cabotage restrictions of the US also severely limit access by RP carriers to the American market. (Cabotage is the transport of goods within the same country.)

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LOSSES SEEN: Besides the restrictions on RP carriers, such as flying only to nine US entry points with 16 possible destinations (but without right to pick passengers from either the entry point or the destination) PAL has been severely affected by the downgrading to Category 2.

Until the Philippines is restored to Category 1, PAL cannot pursue its expansion plans to the US. Affected are its planned flights to San Diego, Chicago, New York and Seattle in the next few months. These cities have huge Fil-Am communities.

PAL has declared that as a result of the downgrading and the adverse US embassy advisory to Americans, the airline stands to lose 10 percent of revenues in its US operations, which contribute 30 percent of PAL's revenues.

The timing of the downgrading and the subsequent US embassy advisory have become suspect in view of the coming flight of Hawaiian Airlines to the country.

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CUT-THROAT: Hawaiian is known to offer very low rates to undermine the competition. It would be no surprise if one day the US airline offers cutthroat rates on routes where PAL flies to ease out the latter.

This has happened before on the Manila-Guam route. Continental Airlines slashed its fare to a point where PAL could no longer viably compete, forcing the latter to abandon the route. But once PAL pulled out, Continental immediately raised its ticket prices.

There is nothing wrong with competition, but this should be on a level playing field. It does not seem fair that PAL has to contend with the FAA downgrade, the US embassy travel advisory and RP-US air pact restrictions.

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