NAIA passes US-TSA assessment

MANILA, Philippines — The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has passed a critical assessment on transportation security by a United States agency.

The satisfactory findings by the United States-Transportation Security Administration (US-TSA) were relayed to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista when he met with US Ambassador Marykay Loss Carlson yesterday.

In July 2019, the US-TSA began outlining multiple sustainable security initiatives with the Philippines’ Office of Transportation Security (OTS) under a partnership with the Manila International Airport Authority.

During Bautista’s meeting with Carlson, US-TSA attaché Robert Rouland said that NAIA and Philippine Airlines, which flies routes to the US, passed the security assessment satisfactorily.

Two days earlier, OTS Administrator Ma. O Aplasca met with Rouland to discuss capacity development efforts for Philippine airport authorities.

Aplasca, who takes charge of security at the country’s international and domestic airports, updated Rouland on actions taken by the OTS on the observations of the US-TSA during their recent joint security assessment of the NAIA.

The assessment also involved US-TSA program analyst Karen Dizon and OTS International Affairs Division chief Nova Gatmaitan, and Katherine Joy Chavez of the Civil Aviation Security Division.