A technician working for MServ, a subsidiary of Meralco, was tagged as a suspect in last Friday’s brownout that disrupted operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport – Terminal 3 for more than 30 minutes.
“MServ was quick to identify that an oversight occurred when one of their personnel inadvertently left a testing cable attached to one of the electric equipment that caused the power interruption. Shortly after power went off, the generator sets kicked in causing minimal disruption in airport processes,” said Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) officer-in-charge Bryan Co.
According to Co, MServ was tapped to lead the full electrical audit of NAIA Terminal 3 as part of the improvement initiatives of the airport following the Labor Day eight-hour power interruption that affected the same terminal.
He said the firm’s technical team assured the airport authority and the public that the latest incident was “not equipment related but a procedural lapse on the part of the MServ personnel.”
Co said the erring technician will be dealt with accordingly.
The airport management claimed there were no flight cancellation during the power interruption, but seven flights were delayed.
MIAA officials offered a public apology following the incident.
Senator Grace Poe said the airport management must exercise technical oversight so these human errors are minimized.
She noticed that the series of power outages at the airport happened during peak travel dates – New Year, Labor Day, and now the Independence Day Long Weekend – when the airport is packed with people.
“Was it a coincidence or was it on purpose?”
During the May 1 power outage, the Transportation department said the agency is already working with the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and other authorities to explore the possibility of a sabotage.
“This report remains to be seen,” said Poe.
Power interruption always occur in NAIA. There were incident of brownouts during the time of then MIAA general managers Eddie Monreal and Jose Angel Honrado.
Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during his time as senator, called for the resignation of Honrado and then Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya for the five-hour brownout happened at NAIA Terminal 1 in 2016, which resulted in the cancellations of more than 80 flights.
The Transportation department and MIAA recently received an unsolicited proposal from the Manila International Airport Consortium to operate and maintain NAIA, the country’s premier gateway.
According to MIAA, the proposal showed the strong interest in operating NAIA from some of the world’s most experienced and capable operators.
“Some of the proponents have already met with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – DOTr’s transaction advisors – and expressed interest to participate in an open, solicited bidding to operate and maintain NAIA,” it stated.