NAIA runway unsafe, security expert tells solons

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) runway is unsafe, an air safety security personnel admitted during a congressional hearing.

Capt. Amado Soliman, Air Safety Foundation (ASF) president and a retired Philippine Airlines pilot, said Tuesday that the NAIA's only functional runway (06-24) is almost a hundred meters short by international standards.

Runway 06-24 is the one being used for international flight operations.

The other runway, 13-31, "is too short for big passenger planes" and is no longer operational due to the on-going construction of the NAIA III terminal.

Soliman also said that the NAIA's runway taxiway clearance distance "fails international standards."

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations attached agency, requires 182 meters of runway taxiway separation distance for aircraft with 50 meter-long wingspan.

NAIA has only 155 meters runway taxiway separation distance.

The Airline Pilots Association, represented by lawyer G. V. Amurao, also shared the ASF's position.

"Any international airport must have two effective runways so that in case of emergency, there's a standby runway," Soliman said.

He also noted that NAIA runways are potential hazards because instead of being parallel, they intersect each other.

Explaining that the NAIA's triangular shape dictated such runway design, Soliman said that no two passenger planes on international routes can simultaneously take off or land to avoid collisions.

Rep. Marcelino Libanan (LAMP, Eastern Samar), vice chairman of the committee, said the current site of NAIA has outlived its usefulness.

It also shows the lack of foresight of the government in developing the country's international airports, he said.

"It's shocking to learn that ours doesn't meet international standards. What's worse is that the existing set-up limits the number of take offs and landings at the NAIA, aside from posing risks," Soliman said.

"Years from now, I'd imagine there would be 10 planes in the air waiting to land and 10 aircraft waiting to take off, because there is only one runway," Libanan said.

He said the present location of NAIA hinders any chance of expansion. The lawmaker, who has opposed the NAIA Terminal III project, said constructing another terminal would not improve the situation.

He insisted the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) should defer the P20-billion terminal project - whose concessionaire is the Philippine Airport Terminal Co. Inc. (PIATCO) - pending results of a House investigation on what he labeled as an under-the-saya (under the skirt) deal.

But in a statement yesterday, PIATCO belied claims by Nayong Pilipino executive director Myrna Borromeo that Manny Zamora, brother of Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, was a PIATCO board member.

"We would like to correct the erroneous information since Mr. Manny Zamora has never been a shareholder, director or officer of PIATCO since the company's inception in February 1997," the statement said.

PIATCO also noted that the project was finalized under the term of former President Fidel Ramos, further debunking allegations of a "creeping cronyism" in the deal.

Libanan claimed that due to agreements favorable only to PIATCO, the government stands to lose at least P100 billion in revenues during the 25-year period of the contract.

"The PIATCO-DOTC project is worse than a sweetheart deal. It's an under-de-saya deal," he said.

Libanan also warned that the committee will employ the full coercive powers of Congress to compel PIATCO officials to attend hearings on the issue. PIATCO missed four hearings already