The Department of Transportation (DOTr) should look into revamping the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippine (CAAP) and CAAP officials should look into resigning.
‘’i think CAAP management should already do what is right which is to resign. Out of delicadeza,’’ Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, said.
Gatchalian stressed this during an interview by Senate reporters on the two airport operations shutdowns in a matter of three weeks the latest io which was yesterday where one of the ‘’victims’’ was Senator Francis ‘’Tol’’ Tolentino.
‘’Two times in a span of three weeks happening in two New Years (Jan. 1 and Jan. 22) incompetence na yun (that’s incompetence), lightning can’t hit twice,’’ he pointed out.
Chaos erupted on New Year’s Day (January 1) in the Philippines after a severe power outage temporarily impacted air traffic control at the country’s largest airport, disrupting hundreds of flights and leaving tens of thousands of travelers stranded in the Southeast Asian hub.
January 22 is the Chinese Lunar New Year.
The latest shutdown was caused by installation of a blower of an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA)
Gatchalian theorized that the two incidents could be the handiwork of disgruntled groups or ‘’it has national security issue’’.’
He stressed that this latest incident should not happen again.
Since the Senate has decided to investigate the first NAIA shutdown, senators would like to look into the second incident, he added.
Senator Grace Poe said CAAP should have issued a prior announcement and rescheduled some flights.
‘’It seems obvious they were not anticipating a possible shutdown of the UPS while they were doing maintenance work,’’
This begs the question if CAAP is truly equipped to repair and recalibrate their ATM/CNS system without the help of a competent maintenance provider like Thales and Sumitomo. Chinese New Year pa nangyari (It happened during the Chinese Lunar New Year). It seems ominous,’’ she added.