Airport fiasco blamed on negligence, ‘stupidity’

Passengers queue at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City following the resumption of operations. According to some airlines, there will be more flights and cancellations due to the effect of the temporary closure of Philippine airspace that affected over 56,000 passengers. (File photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Negligence, “stupidity” and weak leadership in the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) were the disastrous mix that possibly caused the breakdown of the country’s air traffic navigation system on Jan. 1, Sen. Grace Poe said on Sunday.

Poe, who is heading the Senate inquiry into the New Year’s Day airport fiasco, said President Marcos should consider replacing CAAP Director General Manuel Antonio Tamayo in the meantime to give way to an independent investigation.

She noted that Tamayo was part of a body tasked by the government to look into the power surge and technical glitch that allegedly crashed Caap’s communication, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system.

65,000 passengers affected

The incident grounded nearly 600 flights to and from Ninoy Aquino International Airport and inconvenienced some 65,000 air passengers, among them thousands of migrant Filipino workers, on the first day of 2023.

“If you ask me personally, I think a more competent individual should lead [CAAP],” Poe, the chair of the Senate public services committee, said in a radio interview.

“While we cannot force him to resign because that is an appointed position, it’s better to temporarily assign a capable official to lead CAAP during the investigation,” she said.

Senators rebuked Tamayo and other aviation officials during last Thursday’s Senate hearing after admitting that the room housing the CNS/ATM system had no security cameras.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said it was “unforgivable” that CAAP did not install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to safeguard the multibillion-peso air navigation equipment.

No CCTVs

Poe said she was also in “disbelief” upon learning that the country’s air traffic navigation system had no CCTVs to monitor the activities of the people manning it.

“For me, this could be due to negligence or stupidity, or both,” she said bluntly. “It’s also possible that they are hiding something there.”

Poe, however, reiterated that it would be premature to press criminal and administrative complaints against CAAP officials since the aviation agency itself had yet to determine what really caused the incident.

“They could be negligent because they failed to make the right decisions or because of poor leadership. There’s no strong voice telling them to do what should have been done,” she said.