The House Committee on Good Government will look into how the Philippine Air Traffic Management (ATM) System, which was partly funded by a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) until 2021, malfunctioned despite being inaugurated only in 2018.
San Jose del Monte Rep. Florida Robes, the panel chairman, revealed that the new Communications, Navigation and Surveillance system for the Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM ) of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) was a product of a JICA loan between the Philippines and Japanese governments, through the then Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), on March 28, 2002 with effectivity date on February 21, 2003 amounting to ¥22,049 million.
However, Robes said the new CNS/ATM was inaugurated only on January 16, 2018 while Department of Budget and Management (DBM) records show that the government continues to receive the loan package even in 2021.
She noted that the JICA loaned New CNS/ATM System in 2002 was closed in 2010, but said the closing date was extended twice—in 2013 and 2017, leading to its inauguration only in 2018. The panel will also look into how the project was delayed for this long.
Robes said the local counterpart funding for the project happened in 2017 worth P9.8 billion for the “construction of airports and navigational facilities, and acquisition of navigational equipment as stated in paragraph 6 of the General Appropriations Act [GAA].”
According to Robes, the local funding for the new CNS/ATM project was worth P122,273,000 in 2017.
“With the funding implementation and proper maintenance of the new CNS/ATM system, regular audit and assessment of its capability, the shutdown could have been prevented avoiding substantial risks to national security, inconvenience to passengers and substantial loss to the tourism and aviation industry,” Robes said.
Robes also said she wants to know from officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) how the New CNS/ATM System loaned from JICA malfunctioned despite its inauguration in 2018 and with local funding from the government.
Robes said she observed that there was also lack of coordination between the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and/or Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) with the airlines – as well as lack of concern for air passengers on a tight budget and may have wanted/needed to go home, or those who needed to return to work outside the country.
The new CNS/ATM works by sending satellite signals to aircraft transponders and by using transponder transmissions to determine the precise location of aircrafts in airspace, “and its shutdown posed serious threats to aviation safety, economic losses to tourism and the aviation industry, and leaving thousands of inbound and outbound flight passengers stranded,” Robes said.
The New Year’s Day shutdown has affected at least 282 domestic and international flights, and 65,000 inbound and outbound passengers.
The house panel inquiry will also focus as well on maintenance of the new CNS/ATM system, as well as presence or absence of a back-up or contingency plan.
“Although the New CNS/ATM system is reliable, albeit the UPS problem and New Year fiasco, it is still a 2002 system and there should be plans for updating. The closing should not have taken 16 years when the original closing was in 2010 or 8 years. Robes also heard reports that caution was given to CAAP regarding the UPS—that it has too many system features dependent on one UPS. You have an uninterruptible outlet of 120 volts supplying an appliance requiring 240 volts. This should have been taken into consideration since 2018. If not, then this is surely bound to happen. This is what the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability wants to know—accountability. Where did it all go wrong and was this really a ‘force majeure’ or an act of man resulting from negligence and whose negligence?” asked Robes.
“With the funding implementation and proper maintenance of the new CNS/ATM system, regular audit and assessment of its capability, the shutdown could have been prevented avoiding substantial risks to national security, inconvenience to passengers and substantial loss to the tourism and aviation industry,” Robes added.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes