The Speech of the PAL President

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was in Calbayog today. Her first engagement was the welcome program for the inaugural Manila - Calbayog flight of PAL Express.

Among the VIPs on hand was PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime Bautista. Mr. Bautista delivered a briefing at the airport.

(President Arroyo as she listened to the briefing given by Mr. Jaime Bautista. With the President are Mayor Mel Sarmiento, Gov. Ben Evardone and PAL Deputy Chief Executive Henry So Uy. Photo by Henry Puyat)

Here's the speech delivered by Mr. Bautista:

Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Ambassador Robert Desjardins of the Government of Canada, Ms. Ellen Ruth Zeisller, Senior Trade Commissioner of the Canadian embassy, ranking officials of the National Government, the Province of Samar, and the City of Calbayog, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Good Morning.

On behalf of our chairman and Chief Executive Office, Dr. Lucio C. Tan, and the entire Philippine Airlines family, I thank President Macapagal Arroyo for graciously taking time to join us this morning to welcome the inaugural flight of PAL Express to Calbayog City.

Your presence here today, Mrs. President, adds immeasurable honor and prestige to this occasion and we in PAL are most grateful to you for this noble gesture.

I also thank the honorable officials of the Cabinet and other government agencies, as well as our host officials from the Province of Samar and the City of Calbayog, for the very warm welcome accorded us this morning.

Today's maiden flight is historic in that is the first service to Calbayog and to Eastern Visayas, for that matter, of PAL Express, the new low-fares sub-brand of Philippine Airlines using state of the art Bombardier Q400 turbo prop aircraft, made in Canada.

But PAL itself is no stranger to this city. We were the first airline to fly to Calbayog - this occurred 50 years ago, in 1958. So today's inaugural flight of PAL Express is very fitting indeed, coming on the golden anniversary of PAL's first flight to this city.

Back in 1958, Calbayog was a fledging city, having received its charter just ten years earlier. The arrival of PAL and the establishment of direct air links to Manila and Tacloban opened the way for more investros, traders and tourists to visit Calbayog.

It also opened new markets for the city's products, spurring trade and development in the process.

Today, we hope to take Calbayog's development to a higher level with our new PAL Express service. Indeed, PAL Express was created with an important mandate - to provide quality, affordable air service to the many far-flung island communities of our country.

This is PAL's modest contribution towards the realization of President Macapagal Arroyo's visions of creating "super regions" throughout the country.

In particular, today's inaugural flights to Calbayog and three other points - Virac, Catanduanes; San Jose, Occidental Mindoro; and Surigao City, Surigao del Norte - directly support the initiative to make Central Philippines a super region for tourism.

Indeed, this region - and Calbayog, in particular - can significantly share in the tourism bonanza if we can bolster infrastructure.

With your indulgence, Mrs. President, we in PAL would like to humbly seek your support for a much-needed upgrade of Calbayog Airport, in order for it to handle the operation of jet aircraft.

We realize, of course, that a full-scale sirport upgrade entails considerable time, effort and resources, thus the following small-scale enhancements are respectfully submitted for your consideration:

- Asphalt overlay of the runway extension

- Perimeter concrete fencing

- Installation of runway lights

- Expansion of the turning pad

- Installation of x-ray machines

- Installation of walk-through metal detectors

- Installation of baggage carousel

- Air-to-ground communications

We believe that these physical improvements will lead to a corresponding expansion in the Calbayog operations of not just PAL Express but other airlines as well.

And with more carriers serving Calbayog Airport, we can, of course, expect tourist arrivals in this heretofore undiscovered region to take-off.

With that, I would like to once more thank you, Mrs. President, along with all the other officials and guests, for honoring us with our presence this morning.

Maraming salamat po. Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat.