NAIA Terminal 3 (MIAA)




The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) practically admitted before investigating congressmen on Thursday, May 11 that the full electrical audit and maintenance it is carrying out at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 are a useless endeavor. This, after the NAIA operator admitted that it was not in possession of the "as-built plan" of Terminal 3, the groundbreaking of which was held way back in 1997. "Bakit wala sa possession niyo yung plan na yun? Bakit nandun sa contractor? (Why are you not in possession of that plan? Why is it with the contractor?) House Committee on Transportation Chairman and Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop asked during during the panel's motu proprio investigation on the May 1 power outage at  NAIA. "We're supposed to have a copy of the as-built plan, if everything was done according to process," answered resource person, MIAA Senior Assistant General Manager Bryan Co. "However, it was reported by an engineering team that we only have some general plans but not the detailed plans in our possession," Co said. Acop, SAGIP Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, and Bulacan 6th district Rep. Salvador Pleyto were exasperated to learn this, given the importance of the as-built plan in the conduct of the electrical audit that would supposedly prevent future outages at the country's main airport. Asked if he agreed with Marcoleta's assessment that MIAA cannot do proper maintenance without the as-built plan, Co said, "Yes sir, we agree." To this, Marcoleta reacted, "That is not comforting because we are talking about taking care of our airports and our people, the passengers." The May 1 NAIA outage, which affected the flights of at least 9,300 domestic passengers, occurred even as the larger and more disastrous Jan. 1 outage at the same airport was still fresh on the solons' minds. Some 65,000 passengers were affected by the New Year's Day incident. Pleyto, a former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary, was the one who raised the issue of the as-built plan during the hearing. "How are you going to undertake doing the electrical audit, which includes the electrical system plan, kung wala kayong as-built plan? (If you don't have the as-built plan?)" he asked. The Bulacan solon advised MIAA to take the proactive route by commissioning the creation of an as-built plan for NAIA. "Dapat, kung wala kayong as-built plan galing dun sa mga gumawa, ang ginagawa namin, tayo na gagawa mismo. Kasi there are variations...ang nasusunod dyan yung as-built plan. Kasi sigurado ako there are variations na mangyayari sa lahat ng projects na malalaki na ginawa natin (If you couldn't get it from the contractor that made it, what we do is, we do it ourselves. Because there are variations...what gets followed is the as-built plan. Because I'm sure there are variations in all the big-ticket projects that we do)," he said. What's worse is that the contractor, Takenaka, has already been paid by the government, and yet it still has in its possession the key document, said Marcoleta. Without the as-built plan, the SAGIP solon said, "You cannot even begin to pretend that you will be able to develop that preventive maintenance...so magkakaroon talaga kayo ng problema dyan (so you'll really encounter a problems there)." Department of Transportation (DOTR) Undersecretary Roberto Lim told the panel that it had already sought help from the Japanese Embassy in order to contact Takenaka. "We have contacted the Japanese Embassy to request their assistance in establishing a contact person in Takenaka so that we could liaise with them and ask, request, or negotiate that this as-built plans be delivered to us," Lim said.