Old CCTV system ‘blinds’ NAIA ramp controllers

MANILA, Philippines - Licensed ramp controllers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals are having difficulty monitoring movements of aircraft on the ground due to an obsolete closed-circuit television (CCTV) system.

Ramp controllers, who asked not to be identified, said they are having a hard time assigning parking berths and preparing schedules for planes to be towed to aerobridges.

They said they have been reporting the defective CCTV monitors for the past five years, but nothing has been done about them.

 “Before, we saw arriving airplanes as soon as they touched down at the runway as they maneuvered towards service roads because we could easily see them through the CCTV monitors,” one controller said.

“But now, we are now requiring pilots to give their exact locations because we no longer see them. We have to stand up and go the window,” another added.

They added that four people are sometimes needed to untangle ground traffic, give coherence to crisscrossing traffic, and avoid disaster on the ground.

“We don’t want any thing to happen, we are trying to settle everything in the best of our abilities,” ramp controllers told The STAR.

Modern passenger air terminals have become so complex that ramp control is now a necessity, they said.

Controllers said they asked for their monitors to be replaced in 2010, but the airport management told them that their request would be included in the list of CCTVs to be bidded out by the office of Security and Emergency Services of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).

The MIAA said the bidding for the proposed P500-million worth of CCTVs and the construction of  aircraft movement and perimeter fences failed due to the inability of bidders to meet technical requirements for the project.

However, last month, the agency announced that it would procure a P500-million CCTV system without a public bidding.

In a statement, the MIAA said it would enter into a negotiated procurement following two failed biddings, “as allowed under the government procurement law.”