After outage, airport execs keep low profile

TOP OFFICIALS of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) were a no-show at the flag-raising ceremony on Monday amid public outrage over the five-hour blackout at the country’s premier airport over the weekend that stranded thousands of passengers.

Passengers and netizens have demanded that heads roll for what they call incompetence of the airport management.

While MIAA’s honest and model employees were being awarded at the MIAA administrative grounds, General Manager Jose Angel Honrado, fresh from a three-week leave of absence, and his officials were in the thick of preparations at the administration building for a “summons” from President Aquino.

Directive

The President has directed Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and Honrado to adopt measures to avoid a repeat of the power outage at Ninoy Aquino International Airport

(Naia) Terminal 3, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Monday.

The presidential directive came after Mr. Aquino met with Abaya and Honrado in Malacañang Monday.

“Airport authorities were also instructed to maintain vigilance so that the safety of travelers will be assured continuously,” Coloma said in a text message to Palace reporters.

When the Inquirer caught up with him at the office of the senior assistant general manager, Honrado said he could not talk about the cause of the power outage from Saturday night to early Sunday morning at Terminal 3.

First time

“As far as I know, this is the first time this happened. We are looking into the real cause of the problem—how the power supply tripped,” Honrado said.

He added that MIAA was set to meet with Manila Electric Co.,

retailer of power in Metro Manila and nearby areas, to determine what really happened.

The power outage at Terminal 3 caused the cancellation of 82 Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines domestic flights and the delay between 9 p.m. of Saturday and 2 a.m. of Sunday of 185 other flights (both international and domestic), affecting thousands of passengers.

Building closed

For security reasons, the gates of the terminal’s main building were immediately closed, preventing anyone from entry as none of the X-ray screening machines were operating.

As a result, long queues formed outside the terminal. Inside, passengers sprawled on the floor as check-in and luggage counters had shut down.

Negligence

An engineer at Naia, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the prolonged power outage was most likely the result of negligence, pointing out that all terminals have preventive maintenance procedures for generator sets (engine-generators).

“The generator sets without [electricity] load are tested weekly. A complete test for generator sets with load is conducted twice a month. These are all planned and scheduled,” he told the Inquirer.

The Naia generator sets, the source said, should already be running within a minute should electricity at any terminal trip. “It takes less than 10 seconds for power to go back but the out-load has to be reset so all in all, the equipment should be running within a minute,” the engineer explained.

Each terminal has a “priority load” for critical areas, including the passenger movement area, which must never have a power outage, he said.

“The prolonged power outage would not have happened if the gen sets were well-maintained,” he said.

Unacceptable

Senators Ralph Recto and Nancy Binay slammed as unacceptable the power outage at the airport, especially since the airport was a big money earner.

In a statement, Recto said the government collected P9.3 billion from Naia passengers and airlines in 2014, netting P5.25 billion.

“[This] is more than enough to guarantee reliable electricity or buy emergency power generators for its four terminals,” Recto said.

For her part, Binay said the power outage was “totally unacceptable and poses a serious security issue.”

“A simple sorry is not enough to cover the passengers’ inconvenience,” Binay said.

No need for probe

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., vice presidential candidate, said there was no need to conduct any probe of the power outage in Terminal 3, noting that the cause was obvious.

In a statement, Marcos attributed the whole incident to incompetence, particularly of Honrado. With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan