MIAA gets OIC after chief suspended

MANILA, Philippines — Manila International Airport Authority’s senior assistant general manager, Bryan Co, has been named the MIAA’s officer-in-charge (OIC) following the preventive suspension of its general manager, Cesar Chiong.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista confirmed Co’s appointment yesterday, adding that it was approved during a board meeting of the MIAA.

The Office of the Ombudsman suspended Chiong without pay for up to six months based on an anonymous complaint accusing him of grave abuse of authority and misconduct for reassigning about 285 MIAA employees, without providing a reason for the reassignment.

During a press briefing yesterday, Co said he does not see a problem in being OIC while the MIAA deals with the latest issue – the May 1 power interruption that stranded thousands of passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3).

“We do not see any challenge, as long as we complete all the tasks mandated to us,” he said.

“The transition will be seamless, I think, in terms of what we have been doing. We have been working with (Chiong) since he assumed the position as general manager,” he added.

Co graduated with a bachelor’s degree in corporate management at De La Salle University in 2005.

Chiong, in a statement on Tuesday, said he is confident he will be cleared after he presents his side.

He said yesterday he has not seen the complaint and was not given a chance to respond to the charges.

“The country’s main airport faces extremely difficult challenges, and we have started to implement plans and programs that aim to enhance passenger experience at our country’s main gateway,” Chiong said.

Co said the reassignments done by Chiong were based on the assessments of the management team. There are no reassignments on deck, he said.

The suspension order was dated April 28, but was made public only on Tuesday, one day after the power outage at NAIA-3.

Airspace shutdown

The six-hour airspace shutdown scheduled on May 17 to allow for maintenance work is expected to affect 130 flights and 20,000 passengers, the MIAA said.

Co said they have been planning for the shutdown “very well,” and that MIAA officials met with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and other stakeholders yesterday morning.

“It is a planned outage of the Philippine airspace. This outage is meant because we have to do maintenance works and upgrade the capability of the CNS/ATM. This is the same system that had an issue on Jan. 1,” he said, referring to the communication, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management system.

The CAAP will install a new uninterruptible power supply on May 17. CAAP personnel conducted maintenance on NAIA’s automatic voltage regulator from 1:50 a.m. to 3:27 a.m. yesterday. – Rudy Santos