Nitpicking

In the wake of a tragic incident, it’s natural for the public to demand answers and to demand them fast. That urgency often leads to real change. But in our rush to assign blame, we sometimes overlook the complexity of the systems we’re trying to fix.

The recent accident at NAIA Terminal 1 has brought renewed scrutiny to long-standing infrastructure issues: specifically, the shallow steel bollards installed in 2019, and the diagonal layout of the drop-off lanes introduced in the 1990s. These are not new problems. They are legacy decisions, carried over from past administrations and past contractors. And until recently, they remained largely unquestioned.

Much of the public’s attention has rightly been directed at those who designed, built, or approved those features. But as is often the case, there are also those who are quick to point fingers at whoever is holding the reins today without taking time to understand what they inherited or how far they’ve already come.

New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) officially took over airport operations in September 2024, inheriting management over every square meter of infrastructure, including runways, terminals, access roads, baggage systems and yes, safety installations like those steel bollards. All these contracts were awarded by the government which used to operate and maintain NAIA. Presumably, the work followed the safety and engineering standards of the time.

There was, and reasonably so, a presumption of regularity. The bollards appeared intact. There were no immediate signs of structural failure. Short of digging them up, it would have been difficult to know they had been poorly anchored. And when you step into a facility as complex and overburdened as NAIA, where so much demands attention, you focus first on what’s visibly broken and immediately impactful.

That’s exactly what NNIC did. In just seven months, it decongested terminals, improved aircraft turnaround times, streamlined ground operations and initiated a comprehensive audit of both airside and landside infrastructure.

And just days ago, NNIC quickly reconfigured the departure drop-off zone at Terminal 1 from a diagonal to a parallel layout. This is to protect pedestrians and improve traffic flow - one that had been in planning even before the accident, but was now fast-tracked with a deeper sense of urgency.

Would these issues have been addressed right away without the incident? Maybe not. But that’s not because they were overlooked. It’s because in real-world infrastructure management, you triage. You fix the most urgent and visible issues first. You work systematically. And you build forward from what you uncover along the way.

Imagine buying an old house. If you do not intend to demolish it and build a new one, then expect to uncover problems along the way. There are obvious defects and there are hidden ones. Even a thorough inspection by the best contractors would not immediately reveal the hidden ones. And so you address those defects and problems that are visible and pose immediate threats. It is not because you do not want to solve the hidden ones. It’s just that they do not show.

That is why they say that it is better to build a new structure than to buy or inherit an existing one.

One article criticized NNIC’s P170.6-billion NAIA modernization plan under its 25-year concession contract with government by saying that it prioritizes improving escalators, toilets, air conditioning and baggage handling but does not list structural rehabilitation, including curbside barriers, as among its short-term projects.

It adds that NNIC’s ongoing security upgrades, such as explosive detection and biometrics, focus on passenger screening, not vehicle barriers.

So basically, it wants NNIC to upgrade each and every nook and corner of the airport. I’m not saying that NNIC shouldn’t do this, if it is possible, but upgrading the vehicle barriers as soon as it took over? How on earth can one anticipate, even with the exercise of due diligence, that these bollards will not be able to withstand the impact of a vehicle unless it actually happens?

Seriously, how many times have you been to NAIA and actually noticed those bollards?

NNIC has announced that it is conducting an audit of all security bollards across NAIA and is redesigning the departure passenger drop-off areas at Terminals 1 and 2 as part of immediate efforts to enhance curbside safety.

It is modifying the current diagonal passenger drop-off layout at Terminals 1 and 2 departure areas, which was already in place before NNIC took over, to a safer, parallel unloading configuration and will determine where reinforcements are needed for existing bollards along with similar protective barriers.

Criticizing NNIC for prioritizing baggage handling instead of replacing those bollards or of discovering that those protective barriers were substandard even before the unfortunate crash happened? That’s nitpicking.

Speaking of baggage handling, NNIC had already ordered a new baggage handling system last July for Terminal 3 after learning that current facilities were 80 percent inoperable or that only one of the five installed baggage handling and explosive detection systems is operational.

The new systems will take one year to install. Baggage handling at Terminal 3 had been problematic for many years, with the system already 20-years old, but it is only after NNIC took over operations and maintenance that the problem will finally be addressed.

Probably many things, if not everything about NAIA, is substandard and needs replacing. But it would be impossible for NNIC to accomplish everything in one go unless we shut down NAIA to traffic maybe for a year or two.

Since NNIC is improving on an operational facility and as approved by government, the rehabilitation will have to be done in phases.

It is proper to prioritize those issues which will immediately benefit the riding public.

It was recently announced that NNIC has partnered with Collins Aerospace, a global leader in airport technology, for a full systems overhaul at NAIA. This will include the introduction of a common use passenger processing system and self-service kiosks to allow passengers to check in and drop off luggage with ease.

Biometric screening will replace multiple document checks and reduce wait times while improving security while security will also be strengthened with pre-security e-gates and passenger flow management systems. A new baggage reconciliation system will also be introduced to provide real-time tracking to minimize lost luggage incidents.

By August, it is expected that core systems for passenger processing, baggage tracking and resource management will be operational.

The final phase, which is set for completion in September, will introduce self-service check-in kiosks, pre-security e-gates, self-bag drop stations and biometric boarding gates.

As NNIC president Ramon Ang pointed out, for years, millions of travelers have endured congestion, long queues and outdated systems at NAIA and that modernization is long overdue.

With these advancements, he said that NAIA will be one of the most modern and efficient airports in the region, as part of the company’s commitment to transform NAIA into a world-class gateway.

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