Ex-DOTr chief Tugade might be called to Senate probe into air traffic mess
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said Tuesday that former Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade should also be invited to the Senate’s upcoming investigation into the January 1 failure of the country's air traffic management system.
Estrada’s suggestion to invite Tugade to the probe came after a Bilyonaryo report published Monday that suggested that the former transport chief diverted P13 billion allotted for a backup air traffic management system to "cosmetic projects" like the installation of electronic billboards and concreting of parking spaces at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
"Maybe we also have to invite Secretary Tugade to shed light on it, if he really spent it elsewhere," Estrada told reporters.
Estrada noted, however, that Tugade has denied using the funds to modernize the Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management system or install a backup for it to give parts of NAIA a facelift.
Tugade told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the allegation that he did not spend or that he diverted funds for the CNS/ATM was "farthest from the truth."
Senate transportation committee chairperson Sen. Grace Poe vowed Monday that her panel will conduct an inquiry into the CNS/ATM outage that effectively took the country’s entire airspace offline on New Year’s Day, when thousands were looking to fly back home after the holidays.
Aside from Estrada, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla have filed resolutions calling for an investigation into the fiasco that affected at least 56,000 passengers. — Xave Gregorio
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