Get act together

In the middle of the air traffic of military cargo planes loaded with relief goods and search and rescue groups, along with other volunteer medical teams to assist the survivors and victims of monster typhoon “Yolanda,” the world’s largest aircraft Antonov 225 (AN225) landed at the tarmac of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport last Tuesday morning. The AN225 brought a 150-ton replacement transformer for the San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plant in Batangas City run by the FGP Corp., one of the subsidiaries of the Lopez-owned First Gen Corp.

The AN225 arrived in the Cebu airport almost unnoticed as the focus of attention was on the frenzied activities to unload relief goods from the C-130 planes of the Philippine Air Force and those of the US Air Force Hercules military cargo planes. But the sight of such huge aircraft like the AN225 made everyone on the ground at Cebu airport to think it was carrying tons of relief goods and rescuers.

The delivery of this sizable power transformer using the world’s largest aircraft marked the first time that such 150-ton load plane ever landed in an airport here in the Philippines. It was also considered the heaviest cargo to be loaded on an airplane in one piece and flown into the Philippines from Zagreb, Croatia.

The Antonov airlines is a transport company known for owning the biggest airplane in the world. Antonov AN-225, capable of transporting weight up to 250 tons, is also known as Mriya (“the dream” in Ukrainian). It was constructed by Soviet Union’s Antonov Design Bureau in 1988 and is said to be the only one of its kind in the world.

The plane weighs 300 tons and has a wingspan of 88 meters. Measuring 18 meters high and 84 meters long, it holds 240 world records. It was designed for military purposes, serving as mega cargo plane for transporting extremely heavy loads.

Flying in the 150-ton transformer to the Philippines saves five to seven weeks of transport time, compared to the option of transporting it by sea. After considering the combination of airport, onward land transport and sea freight, Mactan-Cebu Airport was deemed the most viable option.

Originally, the AN225 was supposed to land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). But due to heavy traffic in the country’s premier airport and transporting its 150-ton load by land pose more problems on the road.

The nearest airport from where it could be transported to the power plant located in Batangas via barge is Cebu. Nigel Villarete, Cebu airport general manager, initially was not amenable to allowing the AN225 to land in Cebu. But the Antonov people chased him all over the place to allow the landing in Cebu airport. The Russian pilot, Capt. Demytru Antonov even flew to Cebu earlier to convince them of the viability of landing the world’s largest aircraft in Cebu.

Flying from Croatia last Sunday, the AN225 landed in Cebu airport without any problems at all and proved the airport’s runway could handle such supersized aircraft. Villarete quipped it was “destiny” that the landing of AN225 came at this time in Cebu which is currently the hub of relief operations.

Foreign mercy missions like Belgium, Singapore, Saudi Arabian planes are lately the usual sight at the Cebu airport flying in and out relief and mercy missions for Yolanda stricken areas in the Eastern Visayas. Cebu is also one of the hardest hit provinces by Yolanda.

The transformer will replace a similar equipment that caught fire during a thunderstorm a few months ago. The San Lorenzo power plant lost one of two generators made by a Croatian electric company Koncar. The fire rendered Unit 60 of San Lorenzo inoperable and resulted in the loss of half – or approximately 250 MW – of San Lorenzo’s 500 MW supply of electricity to the Luzon electrical grid.

Because of this incident, the serviced areas in the Luzon power grid suffered interruptions due to the resulting energy shortage. Siemens Koncar manufactured the transformer in just four months.

Once installed, the Luzon power grid will be back to full capacity with the 500-MW San Lorenzo plant having more than enough power supply reserves in case of emergency shutdown in times of calamities like Yolanda.

Such supersized planes that have load capacity like the AN225 bring to fore how much of the international aid in terms of relief goods and medical and other material assistance can be transported at the shortest possible time. It’s been one full week since the so-called “monster” typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) brought so much destruction in Leyte, Samar and the rest of the Eastern Visayas region.

As of yesterday, the local and international media such as the CNN have called attention to the seeming disorganized manner by which the Philippine authorities handle the worsening humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Haiyan. No less than President Benigno “Noy” Aquino lll has come under fire for the slow drag in relief operations for the people devastated by the tsunami-like destruction brought by Haiyan.

The hardest stricken areas like Tacloban City have gotten the world’s attention as the CNN led by their most popular anchorman Anderson Cooper flew in here for their live coverage.

Thanks to CNN’s full coverage on Haiyan, international aid from all over the world started pouring for the Philippines.

Unfortunately, the deluge of international aid caught the Philippine government too slow to act on delivering these relief goods to where these are most needed.

Because of his severe criticisms that hurt the feelings of certain Philippine government officials, Cooper became the news instead. Having covered much worse calamities in other countries like the tsunami in Japan, Cooper may have unfairly compared us Filipinos on how we cope with our own calamity.

We cannot blame or begrudge Cooper for his impressions of how seemingly slow the government’s response to bring about immediate relief to Filipinos in these devastated areas since Haiyan struck last November 8.

 But this should not be any reason for our government officials to be onion-skinned. It should, however, guide them to what further needs to be done.

Yes, all hands are on deck but get your act together!