Ambassador Leslie Gatan and Director General William Hotchkiss III of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines lead the Philippine Delegation to the 38th General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal, Canada.

All flight paths of the global aviation industry lead to Montreal as the 38th General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) gets underway at its headquarters in Canada, with the Philippines taking part after having obtained a seal of approval from ICAO with the lifting early this year of the Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) the body issued on the Philippines five years ago.

The General Assembly is also seeing its highest level of attendance, with over 2,000 delegates registered to participate in the assembly and related meetings.

The Philippine delegation, led by Ambassador Leslie B. Gatan and Gen. (Ret) William Hotchkiss III, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, with members coming from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) and Minister Neil Ferrer and Minister Eric Tamayo, outgoing and incoming ICAO Alternate representatives respectively from the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa, will be conducting stocktaking engagements and meetings covering multilateral and bilateral issues on civil aviation security and safety in the Philippines and build on the gains with the lifting of the ICAO SSC .

Close collaboration between the Philippine Mission to ICAO, as based in Ottawa, and the CAAP over the past year has seen significant improvements relative to increased Philippine engagements with the ICAO. The Philippine is pioneering signatory to the ICAO Convention.

Closer interaction with the ICAO has benefitted and enhanced Philippine standing and compliance with international standards, paving the way for a safer and secure air access for the general public. The gains achieved in the ICAO is expected to eventually redound to the definitive resolution on other pending related challenges on air safety and security in the Philippines. As an offshoot of lifting the ICAO SSC, the European Union (EU) has already lifted the blacklisting on the Philippine Airlines to fly to Europe and the Philippines now is taking the necessary steps to regain Category 1 status with the US Federal Aviation Administration (US FAA).

The 38th General Assembly of the ICAO is embarking on key objectives of tackling greenhouse gas emissions and improving passenger safety pursuant to the ICAO Vision 2020.

For his part, ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin express optimism that a global accord of safety and greenhouse emission will be the outcome for this year's assembly. END