Key officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) have distanced themselves from the ongoing external investigation on the critical system glitch at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Jan. 1.
This was learned by congressmen Wednesday, Jan. 18 during the House Committee on Transportation's resumption of its briefing on the NAIA crisis.
The two CAAP officials are Director General Manuel Antonio Tamayo, who is inhibiting himself from the probe; and Air Traffic Service Officer-in -Charge (OIC), Engineer Arnold Balucating; who is on a leave of absence.
Balucating is the head of NAIA's Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM), which on New Year’s day suffered a power outage. This outage practically paralyzed the airport and caused the cancellation of over 400 international and domestic flights.
Heading the transportation and aviation officials who attended the hybrid meeting of the transportation panel was Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary Roberto Lim.
"Insofar as the CAAP is concerned, your honor, we have recommended that the head of the CNS/ATM, Mr. Arnold Balucating, take a leave of absence and he has done so already," Lim said in his opening statement.
Tamayo, who also attended the proceedings in person, revealed to the lawmakers his status regarding the investigation.
"I am inhibiting myself from getting involved in this," he said during the interpellation of a congressman.
Lim, in his statement, said the results of the investigation on the glitch is not yet forthcoming. "There is no conclusive findings yet determined by the committee, the investigation is ongoing. So it will take a few more weeks before the committee can come up with a report."
He said the team of investigators or committee is external in nature because it is composed of the DOTr, DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology), the Cyber Investigation Crime Commission (CICC), NBI, and NICA (National Intelligence Coordinating Agency).
Tamayo, for his part, bared CAAP's plans as far as upgrading their critical system is concerned.
"Therefore, to avoid this kind of circumstance from occurring again, we shall proceed with the following plans for the CNS/ATM: 1) immediately restore and enhance the CNS/ATM
to its original design before the incident; 2) procurement of the Ultimate Fallback System,
which is considered a system upgrade; 3) construction of an independent back-up for the
current CNS-ATM; and 4) to hire a third-party contractor to provide oversight."
"Nevertheless", Tamayo said, "We will be needing the help and assistance of this honorable committee in making these plans come into reality. This is of course to provide better service to our fellow Filipinos and our country, which may further boost our tourism industry."