MANILA, Philippines — Tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan has extended any support his conglomerate could provide the national government, just a day after a power outage crippled air travel in and out of the Philippines.
In a tweet from his personal account on Monday, Pangilinan said that the MVP Group is open to support the rehabilitation efforts after power issues shut down operations in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
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Pangilinan controls PLDT Inc., one of the country's largest and oldest telcos providers.
"If our Group could be of any help to DOTr/CAAP, we’d be happy to participate - colocation of 2nd, even 3rd, redundancies in our nationwide data centers, required connectivities - fiber, satellite, wireless - robust even redundant power supply protection etc. Let’s all support," he tweeted.
The power outage took hours to resolve, leaving air traffic in limbo. Radar and navigation facilities were also unresponsive on January 1.
Even then, the Pangilinan-led utility, Manila Electric Co., said they found no issues from their end amid the NAIA crisis.
Filipinos and foreign tourists were likewise stranded in ports around the world amid the disruption.
As of 2018, the Philippines had 13 radars in place. Alongside satellite-based communications, navigation and surveillance systems for air traffic management, the former Duterte administration's transport department said this meant this covered the country's entire airspace.
Pangilinan was set to head home from Tokyo but was rerouted to mid-flight to Haneda in Japan, after three hours of flying.
"We’re told radar and navigation facilities at NAIA down. I was on my way home fm Tokyo - 3 hours into the flight, but had to return to Haneda. 6 hours of useless flying but inconvenience to travelers and losses to tourism and business are horrendous. Only in the PH. Sigh," the tycoon also tweeted.