DOTr mulls leave for CAAP execs over airspace shutdown

Secretary Jaime Bautista of the Department of Transportation said Tuesday that he will consider asking Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) officials to take a leave of absence pending the results of a probe on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport air traffic management system breakdown on New Year’s Day.

Bautista made the response after Representative Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro suggested the action due to the seven-hour NAIA air traffic management system malfunction that grounded over 282 flights and affected over 60,000 passengers.

“We are doing a fact-finding [probe]... getting all the documents. The investigation is continuing, and we will be considering asking those people involved to take a leave of absence,” said Bautista during a House transportation panel briefing on the shutdown.

Rodriguez meanwhile said that there needed to be accountability for the fiasco.

“This [call for leave of absence] is because we have to preserve the evidence in the investigation and allow an in-depth probe,” Rodriguez added.

“It is what the Filipino nation would want because what happened was a result of gross negligence and incompetence,” he added.

CAAP acting Director General Manuel Antonio Tamayo earlier said that CAAP already bought two uninterruptible power supply (UPS) rigs worth P13 million to prevent the air traffic management system malfunction from happening again.

It can be recalled that the two UPS devices at the country’s main airport did not function during the January 1 incident.

“[We purchased the devices because] we want to rule out the UPS as the cause of what happened,” Tamayo said.

Tamayo, however, also said that their initial findings showed that what caused the outage was a problem with the circuit breaker, although they have yet to find out what caused the circuit breaker to malfunction.

“They did measure the voltage based on the foreline, the input and output and the recent issue which is continuity, if the power supply is going from the power side to load side, and they concluded something is wrong with the circuit breaker,” he said.

Tamayo maintained there is no need for him to take a leave of absence at this point.

“I don’t think I need to go on a leave of absence as of this time because I have to assist in the fact-finding investigation and so on, and lead the people as well,” he told reporters.

“I am so new in CAAP, and as far as I am concerned, we do the best we can in managing the people of CAAP and managing CAAP’s resources. But if there is any doubt about what I am doing, I am willing to go on a leave of absence,” Tamayo added.

Tamayo also countered Rodriguez’s argument that CAAP officials going on a leave of absence is necessary to preserve evidence, saying that CAAP has been very cooperative in the investigations.

“As far as investigations go, we are very open to anybody who wants to investigate. We will give all the necessary evidence they need. Yesterday, the GCG (Governance Commission for Government Owned and Controlled Corporations) came to us and praised us for being so open for investigation,” he said.

“If it is necessary, if I am a hindrance, if there is any suspicion at all or if they feel that I will be influencing the investigation, I am open to that, I will [file leave of absence],” Tamayo added.

In closing, Bautista said that their probe results would be out soon.

“We don’t have a timeline [on when the results of the investigation will be released], but we are coordinating with the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) so we can get the results as soon as possible,” he said. — DVM/VBL, GMA Integrated News