MANILA, Philippines — The Manila International Airport Authority will ask the government for a P1-billion budget for the purchase of power generators that will supply electricity in four terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in case of a power failure, MIAA assistant general manager Bryan Co said yesterday.
In a radio interview with PTV4 yesterday morning, Co said they would need to secure the necessary budget and undergo procurement activities before conducting a full electrical audit.
Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista yesterday announced the conduct of a “full electrical audit” at the NAIA terminals to avoid future power interruptions and passenger inconvenience.
Bautista said the last electrical audit was done sometime in 2017 and the recommendations were not implemented.
Bautista asked MIAA and Meralco to form an independent task force to investigate the cause of the Labor Day power outage. The DOTr will also tap the services of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) to join the investigation.
“We met with Meralco after the power was returned. We also had discussions on how to move forward,” Bautista said.
The transport chief likewise noted that the MIAA immediately turned on its generator sets and partially supplied power to the check in system, immigration system, final security x-ray, arrival baggage carousel, elevators, escalators, air conditioning and lights.
The MIAA and Meralco were able to restore the regular power at around 8:46 a.m. with NAIA operations having commenced using the regular Meralco power, according to Bautista.
Meralco engineer Noel Espiritu said the power outage was caused by either faulty wiring or short circuit, which resulted in a high amount of power current and fault indicator, adding that they are still looking into the cause of the power interruption.
Bautista also apologized to the affected passengers who had their flights cancelled or delayed due to the power outage. Affected passengers were provided water and food through the MIAA, he said.
Probe
The DOTr has formed a joint committee to investigate the power outage incident at NAIA Terminal 3, Bautista said yesterday.
In a television interview aired over CNN Philippines, he said the joint committee is composed of the DOTr, the Office for Transportation Security, the Manila International Airport Authority, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police.
“We want to know what is the real cause of the power outage or the power interruption in terminal 3,” Bautista said.
The first meeting of the committee was held yesterday afternoon.
“We will be able to determine what is the real cause because there are claims that it is not a regular fault that entered the system of the NAIA terminal 3,” Bautista said. “We are not discounting the possibility that there may be sabotage, I hope it is not. This is the reason why we have asked the other agencies to join us.”
OFW assistance
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has provided assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whose flights have been delayed due to Monday’s power outage.
The DMW, in a social media post, said assistance was extended to the affected OFWs staying at the NAIA Terminal 3.
“Food packs and drinks have been provided for OFWs whose flights have been delayed by the brownout at the NAIA Terminal 3,” DMW said.
The agency likewise said that “free hotel accommodations will also be provided to OFWs still waiting for their rebooked flights.”
At the same time, the DMW said they are attending to OFWs needing help with their Overseas Employment Certificates (OECs).
“We are manually fixing OECs to make sure that it won’t affect their scheduled departure,” said the DMW.
“OFWs may approach the DMW Assistance Center in the airport so we can assist you.” – Rhodina Villanueva, Ralph Edwin Villanueva