Compromise reached on NAIA security scheme

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and the Airline Operators Council (AOC) reached a compromise on a new security process to be implemented at the departure areas of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals I and II.

Hopefully, what they agreed upon would enhance security and, at the same time, prevent flights delays and passenger inconvenience.

MIAA and the AOC made the announcement yesterday after holding an emergency meeting to discuss the outcome of the "dry-run" of the "100 percent baggage sanitation" policy, which MIAA tested at NAIA last Wednesday.

The new scheme caused confusion and delay of some departing international flights at Terminal 1.

In a joint press conference held by MIAA and AOC at the MIAA boardroom, retired Brig. Gen. Angel Atutubo, MIAA assistant general manager for emergency and security services, said the compromise formula involved the utilization of baggage strapping machines that will identify "screened" check-in baggage of passengers.

This will prevent the opening of bags after it undergoes initial metal X-ray screening or "sanitation."

With the utilization of the strapping machines, passengers can still have access to their baggage after "sanitation" and will not make porters a necessary layer in going through the airport for passengers of international departing flights, Atutubo explained.

He said the modified security procedure will have a dry-run tomorrow.

Officials of the AOC, an organization of 32 station managers of the different international airlines operating at the NAIA, expressed satisfaction with the new security procedure.

"We are happy with this modification," Leoncio Dakila Nakpil II, chairman of the AOC, told reporters in a press conference.

The AOC had voiced strong opposition to the 100 percent baggage sanitation policy earlier planned by MIAA to be implemented permanently at the NAIA departure areas on Jan. 16.

They complained even more when the dry-run of the security procedure caused some delays and confusion last Wednesday.

The 100 percent baggage sanitation policy prohibits passengers from touching or carrying their check-in baggage after it undergoes initial metal detection at the main departure area entrance. Their bags are entrusted to airport porters, who will carry them to the check-in counter.

While admitting that the dry-run of the added security procedure caused some problems last Wednesday, Robert Uy, head executive assistant of MIAA general manager Alfonso Cusi, clarified that it did not cause massive flight delays.

He said the most major inconvenience caused was a nine-minute delay to the departing flight of a Cathay Pacific.

Uy said these delays were really unavoidable especially during the first weeks of the year when NAIA deals with the rush of Filipino "balikbayans" and tourists who take return flights to their respective destinations abroad after spending Christmas in the country.

He stressed that the implementation of the added security procedures was also all in compliance with airport security provisions set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which added new security guidelines that they ordered complied with by Jan. 1 of this year.