Several senators have expressed their dismay over the latest power outage that occurred at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) - Terminal 3 on Monday, Labor Day.
In a statement, Senator Grace Poe, who heads the Senate Committee on Public Services, said it is "unacceptable" that every time there is a power interruption at NAIA, the airline’s system is paralyzed.
“The incident shows another disruptive failure of the airport systems causing grave inconvenience to travelers,” she stressed.
Poe pointed out that the recent power interruption was dangerous, especially to the elderly as there had been a lack of air conditioning amid the extreme hot weather.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Senator Joel Villanueva said he is disappointed that power failure happened amid their efforts to improve the country’s airport.
He said they will seek an explanation from officials from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), and the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
“Definitely, we cannot let the concerned government authorities escape accountability for this,” Villanueva added.
On the other hand, Senator Jinggoy Estrada said it seems that concerned aviation and transportation officials “have yet had enough” from the previous glitch that disrupted the flights and affected thousands of passengers at NAIA during New Year’s Day.
He stressed that the incident could be prevented if there had been necessary measures implemented like setting up an uninterruptible power supply.
“The Senate Committee Report No. 39 already identified the absence of redundancy or systems backup as among the critical reasons that led to the airport shutdown last January 1 along with the issue of lack of real maintenance to the airport equipment,” Estrada added.
The Senator appealed to all concerned officials to give necessary service to reciprocate the public's taxes.
At 1:05 am on Monday, a power outage hit NAIA Terminal 3, affecting aircon systems and several amenities such as the elevator, escalator, and x-ray machines.
A backup power was eventually used but it was just enough to enable some critical facilities.
Authorities were able to fully restore the power at around 8:46 am using Meralco’s regular power.
Over 9,000 passengers have been affected and 48 flights were canceled due to the power failure.
