NAIA and Mactan Airport both need a 2nd runway

A great many of us who support former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo rejoice that after four long years under hospital arrest under the direct of then Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III the Supreme Court in an 11-4 en banc decision, ruled in favor of the former President’s petition to junk a Sandiganbayan ruling that gave the go-signal for her plunder trial in connection with charges that she misused funds of the state-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). We have always believed that there wasn’t an iota of evidence against the former President… that in reality she was a victim of presidential harassment by former Pres. Aquino.

When she was still under hospital (which began on October 2012) arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) I twice tried to visit her whenever I come to Manila but friends warned me that there was a sort of bureaucracy that might make me blow my fuse when the people guarding the former President would be asking too many questions why I’m visiting her. So I decided that my best way to help her was to pray for this very day… and the Supreme Court decision is my answered prayer!

But I’m one who strongly believes in “karma” where whatever bad deed that you have done to other people will haunt you and eventually happen to you. Yes, while we are elated that former Pres. Arroyo is now free of this criminal case because of “insufficiency of evidence,” however there is a former President who has not yet been arrested for his pivotal role in spending the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional. So while former Pres. Gloria Arroyo finally found justice after four years of being politically harassed, I dare say that it is time for the long arm of the law to catch former Pres. P-Noy and let justice reign!

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Call it unbelievable that the asphalt on the main runway (06-24) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) gave way and came loose revealing the cement foundation underneath… damaging an Eva Air 747 thus forcing the closure of airport operations, allowing only flight operations on the cross runway (13-31) as large wide-bodied aircraft operations had to be diverted to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark Air Base.

Finally the NAIA runway incident has given me my best argument for having a second runway at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MICAA), which unfortunately previous Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) officials always told me that Mactan doesn’t need one. Well, we have news for you folks… NAIA also needs a second runway because if it had a second parallel runway, you could shut down one runway for maintenance purposes without shutting down operations.

One of the biggest problems that the NAIA suffers today is runway congestion and this is due to its cross section runway, which was designed for propeller aircraft. But then due to our kind of politics where people who know nothing about airport operations are thrust into management position, we end up not solving our problems and worse… get our premier international airport dubbed as “The Worst Airport in the World,” which is a title well-deserved because former General Manager Angel Honrado just didn’t know how to run an airport.

I was listening to Usec. Bobby Lim for Aviation Transport Department being interviewed by Karen Davila yesterday morning and he was right that pothole began as a small pothole and because NAIA officials do not do any regular inspection of their runway… they allow the hole to become dangerous to flight operations. But change has come to NAIA, despite this ugly incident when Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade apologized to airline passengers and Pres. Duterte rather than blame the previous management when in truth… Gen. Honrado should be blamed for what happened there.

For instance, under the Duterte Administration, NAIA officials finally solved the notorious “Tanim Bala” problem created by Gen. Honrado. But while this issue has been solved, last July 11th, Ms. Ella Escaño, daughter of my good friend Jimmy Escaño had her GoPro stolen inside NAIA Terminal One. She took an Air Asia Airbus A320 from Osaka, Japan. An Air Asia official took her complaint with a promise to call her within 24-hours. 10-days later, she hasn’t heard from the fellow. One can even say that Air Asia officala could be in cahoots ripping of its own passengers!

Another friend of mine, Mr. Ricky Tio took a PAL PR-1896 flight from Manila to Taipei last June 27th with a PAL official in tow. When he got into his hotel to prepare to play golf, his Onitsuka golf shoes was no longer there and the zipper in his golf bag slit open. Sec. Tugade may have solved the “Tanim Bala” case but the crooks at the NAIA are still there.

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