NO BABY TALK "Of Air and Sea Ports"

No Baby Talk
By Georgene Rhena P. Quilaton-Tambiga

Of air and sea ports

Watching the late night news the other week, I chanced upon a report that another famous travel website named the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) the second worst airport in the world.

Frommers.com named NAIA second worst to New York City’s JFK Terminal 3. The embarrassing title was given to airports based on “cleanliness, services, on-time departures, navigation and the ease of getting to and from a city’s center.”

In October last year, The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, another popular website, placed NAIA on top of the list for worst airport for travelers on long transit.

These infamous mentions disarm the Department of Tourism’s claim that “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” Again I go back to the statement of Malaysian Ambassador Dato Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad that if it’s a hassle to get to a destination no one will travel to a place despite the rigorous promotions.

Sadly for NAIA, the first stop of foreigners visiting our country, it is more of a hassle than a relaxing and fun haven for excited yet jet-lagged travelers.

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Speaking of travelling, I haven’t gone abroad really but I’m quite familiar going around the Visayas since high school. I do believe that our city, being an important travel hub, should be one to provide passengers with hassle-free access both to the Negros and Cebu Islands. In a way, hassle-free translates to hospitality of front-line service employees in terminals and air or sea ports.

It seems, however, that one Coastguard member and the attendants at our very own City Port need to go through training again on one particular subject—hospitality (and all other aspects that sum up to it)!

Travelling with my one year and ten month-old son is not really much of a hassle but it was a true struggle as I had to watch over him and our cargo at the same time. But the struggle is well worth because I believe that the world is the best classroom for kids, however young they are, and that travelling opens and broadens their world view.

Sadly, many do not understand my stance and as we travelled to Toledo City en route to Ormoc City, we encountered the biggest hassle of the day when I asked that my son’s box of milk, water and food no longer go under the detector because it was truly heavy with two full cans of milk in it. The coastguard member, who, as I understand, gets the list of passengers from the RORO vessel, gave me no reaction at all and did not even care to say, “No, everything should be checked.” As I fed our belongings to the mammoth machine of a detector, I asked the ladies for the same favor and maybe they all speak Mars language because neither did they answer my question.

Having fed everything in the detector despite their weight, I asked the Coastguard member again if I could have the pedicab drive around the inspection terminal to the ship’s dock because, obviously, I have a kid in tow. And he shouted at me! He was in complete uniform and shouted that I should hurry or else he’d leave me and my son behind. Admittedly, we came in late because the pedicab we rode on did not drive through the streets from home but practically crawled. Moreover, I clearly understand protocol and was just trying to ask a favor.

In a flare of anger and surprise at his lack of respect and consideration, I retorted that he had not one bit of right to shout at a passenger that is every port’s costumer just because he was in a uniform—camouflage, boots and all. Nor did he have the bit of right to deprive us of consideration just because we were only perched on a crawling pedicab and not on a flashy SUV.

Had we been foreigners would he shout at us like he did in his crisp Tagalog tongue? Certainly, he’d try to escort us mustering what little English he has at the same time. The little or much English he has is beside the point.

The point is to give passengers some respect and consideration be they on a pedicab or wheeled in a car. Both foreign and local passengers deserve equal treatment from front-line employees in ports and terminals, too.

The personnel at our seaport and bus terminal are at the baseline of our tourism industry. If we put men in uniform who only know how to shout and jeer at distressed passengers instead of helping them then our port will never be the ultimate travel hub we dream it to be. Even pretty lasses, who are standing by the detector and know not how to speak and answer passenger’s questions, are not of much help. 

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            That I and my son was really able to embark the ship with all our cargoes intact, we owe it to one porter in yellow shirt. In the haste and blur of the event, I failed to get his name and worse, I was not able to pay him because all I had in my pocket were three 500-peso bills. Honest, considerate and hard-working porters like him are what we need at the port.

            Manong, daghang salamat! Magkita ra ta ug makasukli ko nimo sa imong kaayo.