DOJ exec sees no ‘sabotage’ in airport power outage
A SENIOR official of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday said that there was no indication right now that “sabotage” caused the massive power outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last January 1.
“We will have to wait on the full report to see if there is that possibility (of sabotage). However, nothing indicates sabotage right now,” Justice Assistant Secretary and concurrent spokesperson Atty. Mico Clavano said in a Viber message.
On January 1, flights to and from Manila were put on hold due to technical issues with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) air navigation facilities.
This caused hundreds of flights to be delayed, diverted, or canceled. An estimated 65,000 passengers were affected by the incident.
Cebu Pacific said this resulted from the Air Traffic Management Center (ATMC) “experiencing [a] power outage and loss of communication which are affecting all operations.”
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla filed separate resolutions seeking to investigate the supposed power outage that caused flight disruptions at NAIA on January 1, New Year’s Day.
Villanueva noted that NAIA had been regarded as the “worst international airport” for three years from 2011 to 2013, fourth in the world in 2014, and fifth worst in the world in 2016.
