Dela Rosa: Rename NAIA back to Manila Int'l Airport, spare it from Marcos-Aquino 'tug of war'

For Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, it is better to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) back to Manila International Airport (MIA) than to pass a law naming it after late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.

The lawmaker said the country's major airport should be spared from the political row between the Aquinos and the Marcoses.

"I don't want this facility to be dragged into a...tug of war between Aquino and Marcos," Dela Rosa said in a CNN Philippines interview.

"To be fair about it, to be neutral about it, ibalik na lang natin sa dating pangalan na Manila International Airport. Hindi na 'yung gawing Marcos, gawing Aquino. Para mawala ang politics, balik natin sa Manila International Airport para tapos ang usapan," the senator added.

(To be neutral about it, we should just bring back its original name, the Manila International Airport. We should not name it after Marcos or Aquino so there will be no politics involved.)

The lawmaker was reacting to a bill proposed by Negros Oriental Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr.

In filing his bill, Teves said it is more appropriate to name NAIA to Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., the father of newly-installed President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., as the former "contributed to the idea and execution of the said noble project.”

Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who ran under the banner of Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte in the 2022 polls, gave the same position as Dela Rosa, saying renaming NAIA after the president's father will just spark quarrel between the "yellows" and "reds."

Meanwhile, lone opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros sees no need to change the name of NAIA, explaining that it was named after Ninoy Aquino to remind the Filipinos of the People Power Revolution.

Apart from Teves' bill, Duterte Youth Party-List Representative Drixie Mae Cardema also filed House Bill 1253 which seeks to rename NAIA to MIA.

The party-list representative argued that "the name of the international gateway of the country should have not been politicized in the first place."

In 1987, the Manila International Airport  was renamed to Ninoy Aquino International Airport through Republic Act No. 6639 during the term of the late President Cory Aquino.

It was named after late senator and opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. who was assassinated in the airport when he returned to the country on August 21, 1983.

According to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) website, the country's premiere airport was originally a US Air Force base until 1948, when it was turned over to the Philippine government's National Airport Corporation. The fledgling civil aviation airport's facilities were nothing more than the current domestic runway and a small building as its only passenger terminal.

It added that the first 13 years of the airport were marked by the building of infrastructure dedicated to international flights.

The international runway and associated taxiway were built in 1953, and 1961 saw the completion of a control tower and a terminal building for the exclusive use of international passengers at the southwest intersection of the runways. This system came to be officially known as the Manila International Airport.

In 1972, Marcos Sr. promulgated Executive Order No. 381, authorizing the development of MIA to meet the needs of the coming decades, MIAA said.—AOL, GMA News