Four senators have filed separate resolutions for an investigation into the shutdown of the country’s airspace on New Year’s Day due to what the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) called a technical glitch.
The chairman of the House committee on transportation also committed to file a separate resolution this week.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) suffered a power outage that led to the breakdown of its air traffic control system, disrupting a total of 282 flights and affecting about 56,000 air passengers on Sunday alone.
On Tuesday, Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. filed a resolution calling on the Senate committee on public services to conduct an investigation into the incident.
“The malfunction that affected the NAIA Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) had a domino effect that not only affected those traveling that day but in effect affected other industries such as logistics, tourism and even our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers). So this should be investigated,” said Revilla, vice chairman of the Senate committee on public services.
Senators Francis Tolentino, Joel Villanueva, and Jinggoy Estrada filed separate resolutions also calling for a Senate investigation.
Tolentino said the CAAP must explain to the public why their backup facilities did not kick into gear, causing massive flight cancellations of both foreign and domestic flights scheduled out of the country, and forcing incoming flights to divert to other routes.
Estrada said the incident aggravates the already unpleasant image of NAIA, which he said has often been labeled as among the worst and most stressful airports in the world.
The investigation should identify the needed infrastructure, as well as possible government or private sector support, to modernize and fully equip NAIA at the soonest possible time.
Estrada also said former Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade must be invited to the Senate’s investigation.
This after Bilyonaryo.com reported that Tugade allegedly used the P13 billion budget for the CNS/ATM for other purposes such as the installation of electronic billboards and the concreting of parking spaces outside the NAIA terminals.
“Maybe we also have to invite former Secretary Tugade to shed light on it If he really spent it on other items. Although I think he already gave a statement that the P13 billion was not spent for something else,” Estrada said.
Senator Christopher Go, vice chairman of the Senate committee on national defense, said the incident has huge national security implications.
“It appears that all it takes to paralyze the entire Philippine airspace is just one technical glitch,” he said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said the human and economic cost of the recent New Year’s Day meltdown at the country’s airports was incalculable.
She said she too would file a resolution to find out why things went terribly wrong.
She said many Filipinos working overseas were worried about losing their jobs because of flight cancellations.
“Our migrants and OFWs deserve better service,” she said.
She added that dismissing Sunday’s meltdown as the result of an ordinary glitch was to ignore the systemic problems at the countryu’s airports.
“Let us not take the easy way out and blame the equipment outright. The fact that the back up also failed could mean there are more unseen problems down the line,” Hontiveros said.
“Before we get the much-talked about ‘upgrade,’ let’s see if the problem was compounded by human error or negligence in maintaining the equipment.,” she added.
Also on Tuesday, the chairman of the House transportation committee sought congressional probe into the shutting of the country’s airspace due to an outage in the air traffic system at the NAIA.
Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop told radio dzBB he would file a House resolution calling for an investigation.
“This should never happen again. This is embarrassing for our country,” Acop said in Filipino.