NAIA 3 project suffers setback

The controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 project faces another setback after the Pasay City council required the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), to submit a new or amended Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC) before it gives the electric company clearance to install the transmission lines that would be the new airport facility’s main source of electricity.

Councilor Alan Panaligan said Monday that during a public hearing conducted last Saturday, it was discovered that Meralco was using an ECC issued for the use of Sales Street in Villamor Air Base, for the installation of the transmission lines on 12th street in Barangay 183, also in Villamor.

Meralco was forced to relocate the transmission lines to 12th Street after the Philippine Air Force opposed the installation of the two nine-foot posts with high tension wires as these were obstructions to the helicopters using the air base. Sales Street is the main road in Villamor, Panaligan said.

"We have no choice but to ask Meralco to submit an amended or a new ECC before giving them clearance to use 12th Street," said Panaligan who is chair of the council’s Committees on Engineering and Public Works and on Patrimony, Land Use, and Zoning.

Meralco could face a delay in the project as it usually takes 6 to 8 months to put up the transmission lines, Panaligan said. "Late na sila (They’re already late)."

The new airport facility is scheduled to open in December.

Panaligan said Meralco officials claimed that no ECC was needed to install transmission lines with 115 kilovolts of electricity but this was refuted by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) official, Sixto Tolentino, at the public hearing.

Thus, Meralco has to go back to square one by first applying for a barangay clearance before being issued an ECC by the DENR.

But already, residents of 12th Street had rejected the transmission line project, claiming that it would be a "health hazard", dousing the electric company’s chances to be issued a barangay clearance.

Panaligan said the transmission lines will "modify the existing electric load of the areas surrounding NAIA 3."

Of the 115 kilovolts of electricity, 60-percent will be used by NAIA 3, he said "The rest could service the residential areas surround the airport." — Nikko Dizon