MANILA, Philippines, May 7 ----- The Manila International Airport Authority will ask the government for a P1-billion budget for the purchase of power generators that will supply electricity in four terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in case of a power failure, MIAA assistant general manager Bryan Co said.
In a radio interview with PTV4 yesterday morning, Co said they would need to secure the necessary budget and undergo procurement activities before conducting a full electrical audit. Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista yesterday announced the conduct of a “full electrical audit” at the NAIA terminals to avoid future power interruptions and passenger inconvenience.
Bautista said the last electrical audit was done sometime in 2017 and the recommendations were not implemented. Bautista asked MIAA and Meralco to form an independent task force to investigate the cause of the Labor Day power outage. The DOTr will also tap the services of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) to join the investigation. “We met with Meralco after the power was returned. We also had discussions on how to move forward,” Bautista said.
The transport chief likewise noted that the MIAA immediately turned on its generator sets and partially supplied power to the check in system, immigration system, final security x-ray, arrival baggage carousel, elevators, escalators, air conditioning and lights. The MIAA and Meralco were able to restore the regular power at around 8:46 a.m. with NAIA operations having commenced using the regular Meralco power, according to Bautista.
Meralco engineer Noel Espiritu said the power outage was caused by either faulty wiring or short circuit, which resulted in a high amount of power current and fault indicator, adding that they are still looking into the cause of the power interruption.
Bautista also apologized to the affected passengers who had their flights cancelled or delayed due to the power outage. Affected passengers were provided water and food through the MIAA, he said.
Source: philstar.com
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