Airport workers urged to carry on amid woes
INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
AN OFFICIAL of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) has urged his coworkers not to give in to complacency and to take criticism constructively, particularly in social media.
“Let us be challenged by people who will not always give us the good news but also by people who counter our views and mindsets,” Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 manager Dante Basanta said at Monday’s flag-raising rites, where the Aviation Security Group (Avsegroup), the Intelligence and Access Management Department (IAMD) and 27 airport workers were honored.
“Let us listen to what social media is saying about us. There might be some shade of truth to their posts and blogs,” he said.
The airport has come under heavy criticism lately—for the heavy traffic on its roads to equipment failure and now the hours-long blackout that skewed travel plans for thousands of passengers.
According to Basanta, Naia is faced with competition from the privatized Mactan-Cebu International Airport and the Clark International Airport.
“Our edge over Mactan-Cebu and Clark is not permanent… Some of you might say there is nothing wrong with us. I would rather say there might be something right with them that we need to discover,” he said.
Awarded at Monday’s ceremony were the IAMD and Avsegroup, for a joint operation they conducted against illegal solicitation and colorum activities at Terminal 3 last month, and 21 janitors, for returning valuable items misplaced by passengers at the different terminals.
Also commended were SPO1 Rommel Asto of Terminal 2 and APO2 Henedina Lachica of the Airport Police Department, for returning a mobile phone and baggage left behind by passengers; security screening officer Mitchell Galang of the Office for Transportation Security, for recovering a mobile phone, and three other maintenance personnel.
