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HERE’S
another sign of postponement, perhaps this time
indefinitely, of the oft-announced soft opening of the
controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport
Terminal 3 (Naia 3) supposedly now in June. On Monday,
the Manila International Airport Authority announced its
intention to expand Terminals 1 and 2 either by setting
up additional wings or enclosing the sidewalks and other
open areas and having them airconditioned.
“Since
there are unfinished legal aspects of Naia 3, the
authority has decided to expand the two terminals and
the project would be finished by December this year,”
said general manager Alfonso Cusi.
He said
the plan for Terminal 1 includes conveniences.
“Departing passengers would be able to leave their cars
and immediately enter the building even in bad
weather.”
On the
other hand, Terminal 2, or the Centennial Airport, would
be reconfigured by removing some partitions to increase
the passenger area and at the same time constructing an
additional wing at the north side of the building.
Both
Terminals 1 and 2 have a combined capacity of 8.5
million passengers a year and the current figure shows
they are processing about 7.5 million passengers a
year—Terminal 1, 2.5 million and Terminal 2, 5 million.
He said
they are forced to enlarge the areas now, owing to the
expansion programs of Philippine Airlines and Cebu
Pacific, which bought new airplanes to meet increased
demand. “The expansion of the two terminals has become
inevitable.”
Naia 3
has a projected capacity of 15 million passengers a year
for the next 20 years, but it is embroiled in a long
legal battle with the government, making it useless in
the near term, according to Cusi.
Cusi
said the decision to upgrade Terminals 1 and 2 was also
arrived at after the Japanese construction firm Takenaka
refused to admit liability on future structural defects
that would be uncovered by the two firms commissioned to
look into the defects of the mothballed Naia 3.
Ove Arup
HK Ltd. and TCGI Engineering have suggested to the Miaa
to postpone opening Naia 3 because of life-threatening
conditions in its construction, warning that structural
infirmities could collapse the structure in an
earthquake.
Cusi
said that it was only now that more defects are being
found by the two structural engineering firms because it
was only after the government had taken possession of
the building that further examinations could be done.
“We
didn’t have the legal rights to inspect Naia 3 before,
but since we have paid the P3-billion initial down
payment as required by law, the government is now in a
position to exercise its rights to expropriate the
building and have it subjected to a fine tooth comb,”
said Cusi. |
