MIAA, SMC probing, replacing faulty bollards after Naia accident

The Manila International Airport Authority and the San Miguel Corporation will investigate the faulty bollards in the Naia Terminal 1. Grig C. Montegrande.

MANILA, Philippines — Both the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) are investigating why the bollards at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 1 did not stop a vehicle from ramming passengers lining up the facility.

Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon made this assurance on Monday, after a Ford Everest drove past the bollards and then into the queue of people outside Terminal 1 — killing two individuals including a five-year-old child.

READ: Girl, 5, one of two killed in Naia car accident

“I noticed that too, so I noticed the bollards, because when I was there, I wanted to see where the Everest went through,” Dizon, speaking in Filipino, said in a press briefing after he was asked if he noticed the bollards that were quickly removed from their position.

“So you can see there that the bollards were easily toppled, obviously, because the car moved past it.  The purpose of bollards is to stop wayward vehicles.  So both the MIAA and the San Miguel Corporation are investigating this,” he added.

Dizon also said that he spoke with SMC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Ang about the bollards after the accident.

SMC, which now operates Naia, will likely replace the bollards according to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) chief.

People lining up

“In fact Mr. Ramon Ang and I spoke about it when we saw it.  And they said that they would do look at it, and most likely, they would be replaced by the operator,” he added.

After the accident, several netizens pointed out that bollards should have been strong enough to stop cars from entering areas where people are lining up.

Social media personality and lawyer Alman-Najar Namla said that the incident at Naia shows that corruption kills — surmising that cutting corners in constructing the bollards and possibly using substandard materials allowed the car to go past the parking area.

“Corruption kills.  And today, it took the life of a 5-year-old child.  Yes, there was negligence on the part of the driver — but there was also a failure that runs deeper. A safety bollard meant to stop that vehicle gave way too easily. Why? Because someone likely cut corners,” Namla said.

“Because somewhere along the way, profit was placed above safety. Materials may have been substandard. Installation may have been rushed. Inspections may have been skipped,” he added.  “If things had been built properly — with integrity, with quality, with the genuine intention to protect — that child might still be alive.”

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Documents submitted by MIAA to the Commission on Audit (COA) in 2019 showed that the installation of the bollards were completed in 2019, during the Naia rehabilitation program for Terminals 1, 2, and 3, specifically on passenger safety, security, comfort, and welfare.

Meant to shield people

Literary critic Katrina Stuart Santiago, who also pointed out that the bollards were part of MIAA’s submissions to COA, said such substandard equipment — meant to shield people — have exposed them instead to danger.

“Been thinking a lot about our right to government services, and part of that is the right to be kept safe, free from danger, which is really what we now know these deliberately substandard infrastructure is about — from flood control projects in the millions that do NOTHING to save communities from flooding; to bollards that are supposed to stop wayward vehicles from crashing into people, but which are installed in the wrong way that it functions as absolutely nothing,” she said.

“This kind of neglect is a violation of our right to be kept safe, especially in spaces that government is in charge of.  It is government that failed us. And that would be the governance of 2019, the repercussion of which we are seeing and suffering through in 2025, six years after,” she added.

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Dizon has vowed to initiate several reforms within the Department of Transportation (DOTr) after recent vehicular accidents.  Earlier, Dizon said he has tasked agencies to reform existing regulations on public utility vehicle (PUV) operation and in getting driver’s licenses.

Aside from the accident at Naia, 10 individuals died last May 1 while over 30 were injured after a Solid North bus rammed into a van and a sports utility vehicle that were queuing at the northbound toll plaza of SCTEx’s Tarlac Exit.