Now that Basyang will likely cancel many flights again from Laguindingan, I repost last Saturdays Eagle Eyes column. This can be accessed directly at manilastandardtoday/2014/01/28/the-laguindingan-disaster/ It was a strange and disturbing experience, those four days going back and forth to the Laguindingan Airport (an hour’s ride from Cagayan de Oro), having one’s flight cancelled, and listening to frustrated fellow passengers (some of whom have been stranded already for 10 days) complain and rage. Weirdest of all was the ubiquitous and inevitable announcement one heard many times: “We apologize but your flight has been cancelled because of prevailing weather conditions in the Laguindingan Airport”. Another variation of the announcement had a different last word: “because of prevailing weather conditions in this terminal”. As someone who has travelled all over the world, to probably around 100 countries now to practice international environmental law, I have never heard an announcement like that before. Maybe it’s just awkward English, yet, thinking about it, the announcement is actually correct in that the reason why the flights from that airport were cancelled is not really because of weather. True, typhoon Agaton behaved like an unpredictable ballroom dancer, fickle and temperamental, moving one direction now, another direction four hours later, then staying stationary for long periods. But the typhoon was not the reason for the disaster in Laguindingan. In fact, even when Agaton was already far away, flights were still cancelled. I saw for myself that even when it was just a bit cloudy or there was just a light drizzle, planes could not land. Even in Lumbia, in the old Cagayan de Oro Airport which ironically was abandoned because it was in a mountain area and extremely weather-sensitive, I remembered planes being able to land and take off in weather like that of last week. No wonder, the locals has started calling the airport “Di-malandingan” (cannot be landed on). The fact is that this new airport – international at that, relied on by a region that is economically dynamic and vibrant – was opened prematurely, last April 30 2013, without runway lights and navigational equipment (radar and Instrument Landing System or ILS that would guide planes to land safely). There was miscalculation and human error, although some also attribute malice in the decision to open that airport despite the pleas of the business community of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities and the region. In open letters published last April 2013 in local and national papers, the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation (Oro Chamber), Iligan Chamber of Commerce Inc. (ICCI), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Northern Mindanao (PCCI-NM), Misamis Oriental Fil-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MOFCCCI), asked that the airport’s opening be deferred pending commissioning of the airport’s air navigation and support services facilities (ANSSF). The Regional Development Council (RDC), composed of local governments and regional offices of national agencies, supported this request.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 05:58:56 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015