Fix NAIA 3 now!

The power failure at NAIA 3 last Monday is no longer surprising. Last September, a similar thing happened. During PNoy’s term, I also recall a power failure in T3 attributed to faulty maintenance of its standby generator.

But the Meralco power lines were working fine. There was sufficient power in the Luzon grid so that there was no need for a generator to kick in. The problem came from faulty internal power lines or T3’s power system.

Meralco Manila sector manager Noel Espiritu explained in a press briefing on Monday afternoon that “fault current” caused the outage at the NAIA T3. Fault current is an abnormal amount of electrical current that flows through a circuit –resulting in “circuit tripping” and then outage.

“There was a fault indication at the main circuit breaker of NAIA Terminal 3, and that fault triggered the opening of the main circuit breaker causing loss of power,” he said.

The fault current also affected the Meralco side and caused the circuit tripping, he added.

After power was restored, another power outage happened in the afternoon that was traced to the line going to the parking area. They isolated the line and restored power again to the main terminal building.

This was when a possible sabotage was suspected because the problem was in a less secured area. It doesn’t help that many employees are restive about changes and the NAIA  GM was preventively suspended by the Ombudsman for investigation of a charge of grave abuse of authority in the reassignment of employees. Tough to run an airport where the manager can be limited even in reassigning employees.

Sabotage or not, airport authorities must do a thorough audit of T3’s electrical system. They knew they had to do this after the outage in September last year. They were evaluating proposals from contractors when last Monday’s outage happened.

A guardian angel who looks like Manny Pangilinan came to the rescue last Monday by offering a free audit by one of Meralco’s subsidiaries. That would save NAIA the cost of hiring consultants. Because it is free, the job can be done right away, skipping the red tape that signing on a paid consultant requires.

One big problem Meralco’s technical staff will encounter is the absence of a “as-built” electrical plan for T3. Takenaka, the Japanese contractor that built Terminal 3, did not turn over such a plan. The Japanese embassy can be a big help by requesting Takenaka to send a copy of the terminal’s building plans.

I recall that the terminal was turned over to the Philippine government under protest. Then president GMA ordered its takeover after over six years of being idled even before it could be inaugurated. There were cases pending in various courts that delayed turnover of the almost completed terminal. Because the contractor was not sure of being paid, it is possible the plans and other pertinent papers were not turned over to the government.

It will be interesting to see if the Parañaque City government has issued a proper occupancy permit in absence of the building plans. Maybe T3 is still operating on the basis of an emergency use declaration from the former GMA administration.

A colleague of mine expressed the same suspicion in our Viber chat. He recalled: “I talked to MIAA soon after they got control of T3 after the Piatco case. The electricals/electronics in the terminal were never finished by the proponent, so MIAA had to do the work themselves. It was only a few steps above band-aid. I guess it has stayed that way since (or with maintenance upgrades, but never the wholesale fix).”

Whatever it may be, we have to finally fix T3’s electrical system now. The Meralco technical audit offered by MVP will provide us the real state of T3’s electrical system. The Meralco audit will last at least three months, probably a little more if they will work blind without the Takenaka plans.

DOTr and NEDA should make use of the next three months to act on the proposal of a consortium of conglomerates to take over the operation of NAIA. Timely awarding will make it the consortium’s responsibility to fix whatever problems Meralco may find in the T3 electrical system.

But NEDA will most likely drag its feet on the proposal the same way they are dragging their feet on the DOTr proposals to privatize three other airports, Panglao, Laguindingan, and Bicol. The earlier these airports are privatized, the less risk we will have of malfunctioning facilities. Government bureaucrats work slowly and the procurement process for spare parts among others is even slower.

Strangely, the other privatization proposals are being held up because NEDA is insisting on crunching numbers to make sure the proposals meet the hurdle rate they have in mind. But that is really none of NEDA’s concern since the capital at risk is private, not government. It is just red tape, NEDA style.

DOTr has other pending issues. As for the drivers’ license cards and car plates, I understand that Sec. Jimmy Bautista ordered a more transparent bidding process through a centralized bidding committee.

LTO is blaming DOTr for the procurement delay. But the order was issued only last January. LTO could have procured its supplies last year when the need became apparent and before the order to centralize biddings was made.

Centralized bidding that is video recorded was implemented to promote transparency. It took LTO up to March to submit its Terms of Reference, which DOTr eventually used in a recorded pre-bidding conference with potential bidders.

It turned out in that conference that only one bidder could comply with the TOR out of the dozen or so that expressed interest. That’s obviously a red flag suggesting the possibility of favoritism in the formulation of the TOR. That suspicion must be resolved to protect the reputation of the agency and its officials.

There is so much unfinished business from the past. Sure, we want to see quick results. We also want things like awarding contracts done right. We do not want to see more Pharmally-type scandals happening again. And when there is smoke, total transparency ensures the fire is publicly snuffed out.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco