IPINAG-UTOS ni Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ang mabilisang modernisasyon ng aviation safety system sa bansa para maiwasan ang ‘glitches’ na kahalintulad noong Enero 1 sa Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Sa press briefing sa Malakanyang, sinabi ni Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista na ang management agreement sa Sumitomo-Thales — maintenance provider ng Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system ng Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) — ay pabibilisin din.
“[Marcos] is very much aware of what happened and he supports our recommendation to implement future requirements necessary for the upgrade or improvement of the CNS/ATM system, which includes hardware and software maintenance, hardware replacement, ultimate fallback system for software redundancy and the need for an independent CNS/ATM in a separate location,” ayon kay Bautista.
Aniya, nakikipag-ugnayan na ang gobyerno sa Sumitomo-Thales simula pa noong Setyembre ng nakaraang taon para tulungan ang CAAP sa maintenance ng CNS/ATM system.
Gayunman, hindi naman umabot sa maintenance agreement dahil sa financial issues sa maintenance provider.
“Mayroon silang claim against the government, mayroon din tayong claim against them and they were just trying to settle this and hopefully by the end of this month, mayroon nang clear indication on how we will be able to settle the issue,” anito.
Kaugnay nito, pinag-aaralan naman ng pamahalaan na pumasok sa isang kasunduan sa Sumitomo-Thales at ihiwalay ang isyu ng claims.
“We met with Sumitomo-Thales a few weeks ago and we suggested that we negotiate for a permanent maintenance agreement pending the settlement of the issues,” ani Bautista.
Bukod sa pag-upgrade sa CNS/ATM system, tinitingnan din ng pamahalaan na lumikha ng offsite permanent back-up system, posible sa ibang paliparan, “to keep the system redundant and further minimize the possibility of issues that could affect airport operations.” (CHRISTIAN DALE)
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