Senators, through their oversight function, want to hold an inquiry on the service failure at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) that stranded thousands of domestic and international travellers on New Year’s day, Sunday, Jan.1.
‘'Give them time to restore normal flight operations. After which, we will conduct an inquiry and direct them to submit a full report of what caused the supposed glitch and power outage," Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate Public Services Committee, said.
Transport officials estimated that the glitch might be repaired in the next three days.
‘’This is a national security concern,’ ’Poe stressed.
Poe said the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has already released a statement that there was a steady supply of power from their end.
‘’The failure then points to CAAP and their navigation equipment.
"Thousands of lives depend on the efficiency and competence of CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines). There needs to be transparency and accountability from CAAP,’’ she said.
Poe emphasized that senators would conduct a hearing ‘’as part of the Senate's oversight function, to determine who is liable, and what we need to do to avoid the malfunction from happening again".
Senator Joseph Victor ‘’JV’’ Ejrercito said an investigation should be done to make sure that this unfortunate incident does not happen again.
‘’Its either sabotage or plain incompetence,’’ he said. ‘’We have yet to find out the facts. CAAP is the agency in charge, so they have a lot of explaining to do,’’ he added.
Ejercito said that what is baffling is that the Air Traffic Management System should have a back-up.
‘’Having a totally non-functioning radar system is not only dangerous for air travel but is a concern of national security,’’ he stressed. ‘’With this incident, we seriously need to take back vital utilities such as NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) which could cripple the whole country’s economy and is also a national security concern,’’ he pointed out.
‘’With this incident, we seriously need to take back vital utilities such as NGCP which could cripple the whole country’s economy and is also a national security concern,’’ he added.
Senator Nancy Binay, on the other hand, expressed concern over the recent air traffic system glitch at NAIA terminals that crippled international and domestic flight operations on Sunday.
‘’What happened last Sunday is scary and terrifying, and anyone who has plans of travelling to the Philippines this year may have second thoughts of visiting," said Binay, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Tourism.
The Philippines will be hosting several international events in 2023, including the much-awaited 2023 FIBA World Cup.
"As we open up our tourism, hindi na dapat maulit ang nangyari (this should not happen again). Sadly, we just hogged the headlines in every news channel and newspaper abroad. How do we guarantee a unique high-value experience to our foreign guests if we don't address, find solutions and fix our broken public transport system? That's why I am appealing to the DBM (Department of Budget and Management), help in sourcing the needed funds for CAAP. The bigger picture is fixing our public transport problem for the benefit of all," Binay noted.
The lady lawmaker emphasized that the incident has left a big setback in the government's effort to promote the Philippines.
"Airport service quality and passenger satisfaction have a great impact on Philippine tourism. Yung nangyari sa NAIA (what happened at the NAIA) makes it hard for us to promote travelling to the Philippines when a service attribute has failed. I hope we learn something from this experience and past experiences, and have well-trained airport and airline personnel ready to handle these kinds of extra-ordinary cases, and manage certain amount of chaos to temper an unpleasant situation," Binay said.
It is about time to conduct a full audit of all navigational and communications equipment installed in all airports in the country, she added.
According to Binay, the air navigation glitch that stranded thousands of holiday travellers is quite bothersome and concerning.
"Imagine, several hours of inconvenience and unproductive waiting for passengers... inconvenience to PWDs (persons with disabilities) and senior citizens, losses to tourism and business. This is not the first time that this occurred—there were similar incidents that happened in 2016 and 2018. Our airports, being critical facilities, should have a reliable backup system to handle these kinds of extra-ordinary and emergency situations. What happened on Sunday clearly demonstrates how vulnerable we are, and with either a hardware or software glitch, we can all be crippled," Binay pointed out.