Senators appeared to favorably consider a request by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) for P1billion for the procurement of power generators to serve as power supply backup for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Meanwhile, Batangas Rep. Ralph Recto sought a top-to-bottom checkup of the NAIA.
In a related development, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) asserted that deploying additional generator sets at the NAIA may not be the best idea to end the recurrent power outages at the country’s premier international airport.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the government should provide the MIAA the funds needed by the airports.
“Kung anong pondo kailangan, dapat ibigay,” he stressed.
He said an airport is an essential and strategic facility of the country.
Zubiri earlier asked Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista for a “wish list” to be included in the 2024 budget.
Senate Finance committee chairman Juan Edgardo Angara said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should include the airport’s budget when they for inclusion in the proposed General Appropriations Act to be submitted to Malacanang.
Angara described the airports as a “crucial infrastructures.”
For her part, Senate public services committee chairperson Grace Poe said an extra P1- billion was necessary to provide backup power to the airports. She said this could be subsidized through the budget’s unprogrammed funds, or even through the revolving funds from airport operations.
“But the question is- if they knew that the existing backup power can only support 30 percent of the terminals’ power requirement, why did they not propose to procure back-up generators during our budget hearings last year? “ Poe inquired.
“Clearly, they have been remiss in their duties by not proposing an upgraded back-up system,” she pointed out.
She recalled there was a full electrical audit conducted in 2017.
“We would like to know, what were the recommendations?” Poe said.
Why did past and present NAIA administrations fail to comply with the recommended upgrades,” she added.
In seeking the complete checkup of the NAIA, Recto cited the eight-hour power outage that struck facility last, May 1, causing the delay or cancelation of dozens of flights.
“According to the DOTr (Department of Transportation), the NAIA will undergo an electrical system audit. If there are many ailments, why not make it a complete check-up so that we’ll come up with the right cure?,” Recto said.
“And whatever work to be done should be submitted as one package, so the remedies will not be several Band Aid of cures, but a wellness package,” he added.
Recto added that the budget needed to upgrade the NAIA would not be a problem.
“So if the promised power system audit would validate that request, then government should buy it, but not necessarily in the amount floated. Panic buying is the number one procurement sin,” Recto stated.
“May pera naman kasi. NAIA is a corporate profit center for the government. It is not a charity,” he said.
“Even if this light bulb moment had come too late, after the airport had been hit with electrical crashes, it should be treated as an urgent request. Everytime the NAIA is hit with a blackout, the nation gets a black eye,” Recto stressed.
The gross revenues of the MIAA which runs the NAIA was P15.2 billion in 2019, Recto disclosed.
“Since the MIAA is a corporation, it need not seek appropriation authorization from Congress,” Recto noted.
He added Secretary Jimmy Bautista has the experience and the expertise “to undertake NAIA’s urgent to-do-list – the ones which are not cosmetic, but essential.”
For its part, Meralco said providing backup generators for the NAIA was viable.
‘We don’t think it’s the best option. Even if you have a genset and it’s your system that is electrically unsafe or underrated, there is still a chance of power failure. It’s a knee jerk reaction. They should talk to power systems experts,” a Meralco source said.
Meralco officials met with the DOTr on Wednesday for the conduct of an electrical audit, which the power retailer offered to conduct free of charge.
“We will conduct the electrical audit… as to the cause of the power outage last May 1, we reported that it was traced to the busted current transformers inside their own substation serving the parking areas,” the official said.
He said that when the transformer was re-energized around 3:46PM last May 1, it caused another total failure and when it was fully isolated, Terminal 3 went back to normal operations.
The Meralco official said the audit can be done in a couple of weeks, but what was important was implementing the audit findings.
He said Meralco wanted to work with Secretary Bautista, not only with the audit, but also on the needed upgrade or rectifications based on audit results.
“The rectifications may not cost that much,” he said.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the May 1 airport brownout that hit NAIA Terminal 3 caused the cancellation of more than 40 flights, affecting thousands of travelers.
“This incident that happened was not acceptable. This disgusting event happened a few months after the entire air transport system was paralyzed during the New Year,” he said.
“We should have learned our lessons from the New Year incident and appropriate redundancy measures should have been put into place to avoid a repeat of such incident,” Gatchalian said.