Governor Garcia lashes back at ‘socmed experts’

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has defended the management of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) from those criticizing the airport’s operation after an airplane overshot the runway last October 24.

Garcia has reacted after reading comments on social media from those who “suddenly became experts” on airport operation.

“But, of course, everybody suddenly became expert on what to do with the airport. You don’t do that as a knee-jerk reaction. Let me assure you, as part of the authority since I sit there, the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority, a second runway is in the pipeline.  Certainly, we would wish to develop other airports, but to develop an international airport of that caliber, you don’t achieve that by just commenting on Facebook,” Garcia said.

She added that instead of “knee-jerk” reactions, everybody must be thankful that nobody was killed or seriously injured during the accident.

Garcia also said that the MCIA is doing its best to get their operations back to normal, commending its swift action after the incident.

“An accident of that nature could have paralyzed the operation for days and days and yet they have been able to resume flights the day after and we may not be able to have a 24-hour schedule for take offs and landing, (but) things are slowly getting back to normal,” Garcia said.

The MCIA, in its public advisory, said that the airport operations in MCIA remain limited from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. until further notice, advising the passengers to monitor their flights before proceeding to the airport and to coordinate with their airline companies for assistance.

Meanwhile, the salvage operations and the investigation on the Korean Air flight KE631 still continued as of yesterday.

Nagiel Bañacia, chief of Lapu-Lapu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, in his social media post, shared photos and video of the ongoing clearing operation yesterday at the runway of the airport. — GAN (FREEMAN)