NAIA power outage 'unacceptable,' says DOTr's Dizon

Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon on Monday lamented the power interruption at the three terminals of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Sunday, saying that the situation was “unacceptable.”

At a press conference, Dizon noted that the power outage happened at Terminal 1 from 7:40 a.m. to 7:45 a.m.; Terminal 2 from 7:24 a.m. to 7:48 a.m.; and Terminal 3 from 8 a.m. to 8:01 a.m.

“Dapat ‘yan, pagka nagkaron ng power outage, the generator has to kick in immediately. Dapat ‘yan walang isang minuto…So unacceptable ‘yung 5 minutes, unacceptable lalo na ‘yung sa Terminal 2 na mahigit 20 minutos. Hindi pwede ‘yun,” he said at a press conference.

(When there is a power outage, the generator has to kick in immediately. That should happen in less than a minute…So the 5-minute power outage is unacceptable, especially in Terminal 2 which took more than 20 minutes. That should not happen.)

Dizon said he has tasked his officials to tell New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) to correct the issue “immediately.”

“I know maraming mga technical problems sa airport, madami diyan luma na and it would take some time para ayusin ng ating operator ‘yan [there are many technical problems in the airport and many of them would take the operator some time to fix]. But they have to meet the standards contained in the privatization agreement for operations,” he added.

Dizon said that the NNIC already has suggested a long-term solution by connecting the airport directly to the national grid.

“I think they are studying that and they are working on that para hindi na mauulit ‘to. Para naka-bypass na tayo sa distributor, diretso na tayo sa grid,” he said.

(The NNIC is studying that and are working on that so that this doesn't happen again. With this, we can bypass the distributor and go straight to the grid.)

Aside from the power outage issue, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has fired three employees of the Office of Transportation Security allegedly involved in the “tanim-bala” scheme at NAIA.

The NNIC, in return, said it is coordinating with the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) for the reinforcement of security monitoring at the NAIA following the incident. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News