Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 10) — The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines made an emergency purchase of two uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units as part of measures to prevent power failures at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), an official said Tuesday.
Manuel Antonio Tamayo, CAAP director-general, said they consulted the supplier regarding the lifespan of the older UPS before proceeding to acquire newer units. This happened days after the crisis at the NAIA that affected tens of thousands of passengers on New Year’s Day.
He said the old ones would not be discarded as they would still be maintained and used as a backup.
“We purchased the new UPS from the same manufacturer. These are newer models, easier to maintain and have better monitoring,” Tamayo said during the House Committee on Transportation hearing.
However, CAAP was questioned during the hearing on the need to purchase new UPS units when these were not the cause of the chaos at the main air hub.
Aviation authorities said preliminary investigation results point to the malfunction of the main circuit breaker as the reason for the power outage.
Defending CAAP’s move, Tamayo said: “The point of the decision made to replace the UPS is there are a lot of possibilities that the UPS will create a future problem.”
“We went through emergency purchase but bidding was done, but we just had to expedite,” he added.
