2023 began with a bang in the Philippines as all airspace over Manila was closed due to a glitch that shut down everything. It was a total fiasco leaving thousands of passengers stranded. This blackout also laid bare the shoddiness of NAIA which is routinely ranked as one the of the worst airports in the world. Just last month in December, 2022 NAIA was ranked the third most stressful airport in Asia.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1707816/naia-third-most-stressful-airport-in-asia-study |
For the longest time, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), considered as the main gateway to the Philippines, has been named one of the worst airports in the world and has received numerous complaints from passengers across the globe.
Ahead of the holiday season and the expected holiday rush, a new report released by the travel website hawaiianislands.com has once again ranked NAIA as among the worst airports in Asia and the world.
Last month, the travel website released its report titled “The Most Stressful Airports in America and the World,” which was done through analysis of over 1,500 Google reviews for over 500 airports across the world.
“We analyzed the sentiment of Google reviews and ranked airports around the world and within the United States based on the percentage of reviews that indicate stress,” hawaiianislands.com explained.
Delays, long queues, and crying babies—according to the report—are just among the many reasons that air travel can be stressful for passengers, adding issues such as turbulence, baggage claim, and costly beverage on the flight.
Yes, NAIA sucks but that is not what I want to discuss. It is the Senate's reaction that I want to analyze.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1711938/senators-think-air-traffic-hitch-not-ordinary-may-have-huge-natl-security-implications |
The disruption at the country’s main airport due to a hitch in the air traffic control system may not be an “ordinary glitch” and “has possibly huge national security implications,” according to two senators on Tuesday.
Senators Christopher “Bong” Go and Risa Hontiveros issued separate statements following a power outage at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center on New Year’s Day, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of flights that affected at least 56,000 domestic and international travelers.
“As Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on National Defense, I believe that this incident has possibly huge national security implications,” Go said. “It appears that all it takes to paralyze the entire Philippine airspace is just one technical glitch.”
The senator added that it is unacceptable to see passengers stranded in airports and forced to spend money for new tickets. He also noted that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are now worried about their job status for not returning on time due to flight delays and cancellations.
For Hontiveros, the snag may not just be an “ordinary glitch.” She thought there could be “more unseen problems down the line.”
“This may not be just an ordinary ‘glitch’, as the early diagnosis said. Dismissing it as a simple ‘bug’ ignores the systemic problems at our airports. Let us not take the easy way out and blame the equipment outright. The fact that the back up also failed could mean there are more unseen problems down the line,” she said.
“Before we get the much-talked about ‘upgrade’, let’s see if the problem was compounded by human error or negligence in maintaining the equipment,” she continued.
Vulnerability to cyber attacks using the current system, said Hontiveros, must also be assessed.
The concerns of Senators Bong Go and Grace Poe are well placed. The whole of Manila airspace being taken out as the result of a glitch is a national security issue. If it is this easy to take out NAIA and ground air travel to a halt then it ought not to be dismissed as just a glitch. An investigation is required into the entire matter. That is exactly what some Senators are demanding.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1712172/senators-seek-thorough-probe-of-naia-fiasco |
Senators on Tuesday urged transportation officials to dig deeper into the alleged technical glitch and power outage that crippled the country’s air traffic navigation system on Jan. 1, with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada saying the government should not set aside the possibility that it could be a cyberattack.
“We have to look at all angles possible. We cannot discount that this could be a cyberattack,” Estrada said in an online press briefing. “We do not know if terrorists [were behind it]. Let’s not be too complacent about it.”
When pressed, he clarified that he had no information showing it was a cyberattack.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) should not conveniently blame “outdated” equipment for the incident.
“Before we get the much-talked about ‘upgrade,’ let’s see if the problem was compounded by human error or negligence in maintaining the equipment,” she said in a statement.
Estrada, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. separately filed resolutions seeking a Senate inquiry into the incident, which the former referred to as “air traffic management fiasco.”
Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, earlier announced that she would open an investigation of the matter.
Sen. Nancy Binay, meanwhile, rejected suggestions to hand over the country’s air traffic management to private companies to prevent a repeat of the incident in the future.
It's great that the Senate seems to be concerned with national security issues now. But I don't buy it. I don't buy their sudden concern about national security. I say this because it has been almost six years since the Marawi siege and the Senate has yet to make a peep about it.
Let me give a quick rundown on the Marawi siege. The details can be found in my articles Intelligence Failures and Prior Knowledge of the Marawi Siege and Book Review: "The Battle of Marawi" Reveals the AFP is an Inept and Ill-prepared Military Force.
In 2017 the Maute group, an affiliate of ISIS, planned to lay siege to the city of the Marawi in a bid to build a caliphate in the Philippines. The AFP and PNP knew of these plans at least a month before they happened but did nothing to attempt to prevent the siege and ignored and downplayed the fact that ISIS was in the Philippines. According to then DND Secretary Lorenzana prior to the siege the AFP had ceased urban combat training which is why the siege lasted for 5 months. At the end of the siege the AFP executed several men who surrendered while television reporters looked on. This event was covered up by the AFP and the reporters who witnessed the event.
At no time since has anyone in the media or any politician asked the hard questions about exactly how the siege happened, why it happened, and how it can be prevented from happening again. Without a doubt the Marawi siege was the single most devastating blow to national security since World War 2 and the entire nation does not care to learn more about it or how to prevent it from ever happening again.
So, please excuse me if I don't buy the Senate's sudden concern about national security because of a glitch at NAIA.
Spot on!
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