This was the opinion of former Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr., when asked by businessman Ramon R. del Rosario Jr. about what he thought was the best way to solve the current air-traffic congestion at the Naia, at Thursday’s Phinma Forum at the Tower Club. Del Rosario, former chairman of the influential Makati Business Club, is CEO of Phinma Inc.

“Our airport is located where it should be,” said Jimenez, whose iconic ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ branding campaign helped power visitor arrivals in the country to 5.9 million in 2016, from only 3.01 million in 2009. “The trend all over the world is the city airport,” he explained during the open forum, adding that Tokyo’s Haneda Airport was an old facility  that was turned into an international airport when Japan realized “it needed an airport close to the city. [Manila] already has an airport in the city.”

He urged the Duterte administration to just “bite the bullet and buy up the properties around the Naia,” so it could expand the present airport to accommodate  another runway and more passenger terminals, if needed. He did concede, however, that the investment in purchasing those properties would probably cost as much as expanding the  Naia itself.

But Jimenez pointed out about 60 percent of Metro Manila’s 12.9 million population and business activities “go through Manila anyway,” providing the Naia a steady stream of passengers and visitors.

He did say the country was large enough “to have four major international gateways”, but for Manila, the present location of the Naia is already favorable. The Department of Transportation (DoTr) policy to solve the air-traffic congestion at the Naia is to have multiple airports around the Manila. The Solar Entertainment Group of the Tieng family, for instance, has proposed to expand the Sangley Airport in Cavite to include port facilities for ships.

Steven Crowdey, Delta Airlines’ former general manager for Australia, Micronesia, and the Philippines, and former first vice chair of the Board of Airlines Representatives, said in 2012 that foreign carriers still prefer Naia as the main gateway to Manila because the demand from inbound and outbound passengers is still there.

Businessman Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corp., for another, has proposed a new airport and terminal in Bulacan. The GMR-Megawide consortium, meanwhile, has submitted a proposal to expand the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

Also at the forum was Roberto Laurel, president of the family-owned Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU), who spoke about the success story of The Bayleaf Hotel, a “teaching hotel” beside its campus in Intramuros.

He told the BusinessMirror that the university was considering to expand its hotel portfolio outside its present campuses, and is looking at Baguio as its next destination.

While LPU has no campus in Baguio, he said, they can attract the students in the universities in the area to sign up for on-the-job training at the hotel. LPU recently opened a boutique hotel 148-room Bayleaf Hotel in Cavite.

A series of forums was held by the Phinma Group tackling various issues, including tourism, in celebration of its 60th anniversary. It has business interests in education, energy, hotels, housing, steel products and strategic consulting.