Up until the Second World War, the conduct of commercial aviation activities between countries was based mainly on bilateral arrangements because there was a prevailing “unqualified national sovereignty” over airspace.

With the Second World War coming to an end, interested parties met in Chicago in late 1944 to draw up a new treaty to allow more open access for the conduct of international air commerce.

This convention has the objective of providing an agreement on principles and arrangements governing international civil aviation in the interest of safe navigation of the skies.

It has close to universal acceptance with 188 signatory or Contracting States The Philippines, having ratified the Convention on International Civil Aviation on March 1, 1947[2] and being one of the 188 Contracting States (as of June 2002) of the ICAO, is bound to comply with the international standards of safeguarding civil aviation against acts of unlawful interference, including global terrorism.

And as response to the international mandate calling for a single authority for securing all modes of transportation in the Philippines per the ICAO and IM0 guidelines, the President issued Executive Order No.