MANILA, Philippines - Aviation experts from the European Union (EU) who visited the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) for 5 days in October, called on the government to support the agency to expedite the reforms being made to get back to Category 1 status.

"Support from the government appears necessary in order to speed up and complete, as soon as possible, the transfer of personnel from the former Air Transportation Office [ATO], provided the necessary qualifications criteria are met," according to an executive summary of the visit released to the media.

The EU was made aware of the lengthy deliberations at the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the budget department, determining who among the CAAP's 3,500 personnel will get specific plantilla positions.

To accelerate the process, the CAAP came out with a "qualification standard" (QS), containing several criteria that a prospective employee must be able to reach, if they were to get the positions they have opted for.

As of now, all of the former ATO employees are on "holdover" capacity.

When Republic Act 9497 creating the CAAP was signed in 2007, the ATO was transformed from a line agency, into a corporate entity, but it had difficulty filling up various positions.