CA stops enforcement of TRO vs runway repair

CEBU CITY — The Court of Appeals has ordered the local Regional Trial Court not to implement its restraining order temporarily stopping repairs on the runway of the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Angelo Verdan, general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), said he has received a copy of the appellate court’s July 31 resolution.

The Court of Appeals’ fourth division ordered Regional Trial Court Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr., Echelon Industries Inc. and its manager, Crisologo Saavedra, to stop implementing the July 19 and Dec. 2 "challenged resolutions" for 60 days.

In both resolutions, Gako, acting on a petition that Echelon filed last year, issued a temporary restraining order preventing the MCIAA from undertaking rejuvenation and rehabilitation of the dilapidated runway.

Echelon claimed to have won the contract in rejuvenating the runway during a bidding last year. The US-based company alleged that the MCIAA withdrew its commitment after receiving derogatory information about Echelon that was contained in a white paper. Echelon has denied the derogatory information.

But in a fact sheet it released to The Freeman, the MCIAA clarified that no entity was awarded the contract to repair the runway. The authority’s board of directors withheld awarding the project to Echelon pending verification of the allegations against the company.

While pending verification, the MCIAA board agreed to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Air Transportation Office (ATO) to undertake the immediate repair and rejuvenation of the runway.

Aggrieved that the contract was not awarded to it, Echelon sought a court order stopping both the MCIAA and the ATO from either rebidding the project or undertaking the runway repairs.

The MCIAA then petitioned the court to lift the restraining order to expedite the repairs. The petition was deliberated on in closed-door sessions last Monday but no resolution was reached as Echelon offered a compromise.

Echelon offered to withdraw all cases it had filed against MCIAA only if it is awarded the contract to supply the chemicals and supervise rejuvenation work on the runway. Verdan will take up the compromise offer with the MCIAA board tomorrow.

Recently, the Philippine Airlines threatened to cease all its operations at the Mactan airport unless immediate repairs are done on the Mactan airport’s runway which it described to be in a sad state of disrepair.

PAL complained about the tires of its aircraft being lacerated due to the runway’s jagged surface.

According to the MCIAA, constant landings and take-offs and air pressure generated by jet engines have thinned out the asphalt surface. As a temporary measure until repairs are fully carried out, the authority has been vacuuming the runway of debris.

PAL operates 16 flights in and out of the Mactan airport. Nine other local and foreign airlines operate an average of 124 flights daily, 63 percent of which are commercial flights. — Freeman News Service