President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. apologized to passengers affected by the air traffic system outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on New Year's day.
"I’m sorry. We, of course, we have to apologize to our kababayans who, especially those who came from abroad dahil limitado ang kanilang bakasyon (because their vacation is just limited)," Marcos said on Friday, Jan. 6.
He apologized to about 65,000 passengers who were affected by the incident on Jan. 1.
He further said the incident was "very unfortunate" and assured travelers that it will not happen again as the government is already planning to put up a proper backup system for the country's main gateway.
"None of us wanted this to happen and we have tried our best to support, to make sure that those who were affected and it is a large number," Marcos said.
"Nawala yung dalawa, tatlong araw, e. Alam naman natin, very valuable sa Pilipino ‘yung Christmas holiday. Kaya’t kami’y naghihingi --- humihingi ng inyong paumanhin. Ngunit gagawin namin ang lahat na hindi na maulit ito (They lost about two, three days. We know that Christmas holiday is very valuable to Filipinos. So, we are apologizing. But we will do everything so that this won't happen again)," he added.
Airport system, facilities upgrade
Five days after the incident happened, the President went to NAIA for an inspection and to discuss with Transportation officials the government's move to ensure that there will be no repeat of the system outage.
He ordered Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to fast track the negotiations with equipment suppliers for the upgrade of the airport's system.
"I think for now, we’ll be alright. But we are planning already on the future redundancies for the system," Marcos said.
"So kung mayroon mangyari ulit na ganito, mayroon tayo kaagad na kapalit. Hindi na tayo aabot ng anim na oras. Siguro mahaba na yung ilang minuto lang (So if this will happen again, we have a backup. It will no longer take six hours. A few minutes would be long)," he added.
The President said aside from the upgrade of facilities, a proper backup system must also be put in place.
"And beyond that, is to have a proper backup system so if the whole system fails, like it did on January 1, we have a complete system ready to go. Yun lamang, that might take a little time but that is something that we will try to fast-track as quickly as possible," he said.
The chief executive stressed that the incident must not happen again especially during high-traffic season.
The Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) encountered a power outage at 09:49 a.m. on Jan. 1. It was restored at around 4 p.m. on the same day. The outage affected both domestic and international flights.