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Noy tells Abaya: No more NAIA blackouts
By Delon Porcalla and Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) | Updated April 5, 2016 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - There should be no repeat of the power outage that crippled the country’s premier international airport for five hours over the weekend, President Aquino told the airport manager and the transport chief yesterday.

“The President has directed Secretary Abaya and airport general manager Honrado to adopt contingency measures to prevent the recurrence of the power outage that disrupted operations at NAIA-3 over the weekend,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

He was referring to Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Angel Honrado.

At the same time, airport authorities were also “instructed to maintain vigilance so that the safety of travelers will be assured continuously,” Coloma said.

Abaya and Honrado were summoned to a meeting at Malacañang yesterday afternoon.

The MIAA said a Manila Electric Co (Meralco) substation tripped, causing the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 to lose power.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga confirmed the tripping, but clarified that the trouble lasted only for about 45 seconds and the substation was able to immediately restore power supply to NAIA-3.

He said Meralco dispatched an inspection team to the NAIA substation at 1 a.m. Sunday but found the facility already working. Zaldarriaga said the blackout continued due to “load pressure from the internal electrical facilities.”

Nonetheless, Zaldarriaga said Meralco is checking all its facilities serving the NAIA-3 to prevent another power failure at the busy airport facility.

“Based on our assessment, the power interruption that occurred was apparently due to problems in NAIA’s internal electrical facilities,” the Meralco spokesman said.

He declined to give an update on the meeting between Meralco and airport authorities.

“We are working very closely with NAIA-3 and part of that is to do an inventory which includes a thorough check as well on all our facilities serving the terminal,” he said.

“We are committed to provide efficient, adequate and reliable electric service, especially to a very vital installation like NAIA-3,” he added.

The five-hour power outage forced the cancellation of 82 domestic flights and delays in four international flights. “NAIA and Meralco are still investigating the incident,” Department of Energy director Irma Exconde said in a text message.