Palace: Renaming Naia to Manila Int’l Airport needs congressional act

Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Image from miaa.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines — A congressional action is needed to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) to its original name Manila International Airport, as pushed by a party-list lawmaker, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar issued the remark after Duterte Youth party-list Representative Ducielle Marie Cardema proposed a measure renaming Naia.

“There has to be a congressional action to repeal the Republic Act No. 6639 which renamed MIA to Naia,” he said in a Palace briefing.

He, however, pointed out that the Supreme Court, in 2020, junked a petition to nullify the Republic Act No. 6639 which named the airport to Naia.

The petition was denied for “lack of merit.”

Cardema has filed House Bill 10833 seeking to rename Naia to MIA, claiming that the airport’s current name was politicized.

The airport was renamed NAIA in 1987 during the term of then President Corazon Aquino, after the overthrow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

The airport was where Aquino’s husband, then senator Ninoy, the staunchest critic of the Marcos regime, was shot dead on August 21, 1983, after arriving in the Philippines after three years of exile in the United States.

JPV