By Osias T. Osorioâ€
The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is in the process of purchasing security-related equipment to provide security to all passengers and personnel while inside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals.
MIAA will spend some P2.5 billion in four terminals spread over nine separate projects.
NAIA assistant General Manager for Security and Emergency Services Salvador Peñaflor said that contracts are now open for bidding, and hopes that prospective bidders would be able to meet the 2012 deadline.
“The money is purely for the purchases of equipment, not for added personnel,†Peñaflor said.
He said there is a long list of equipment that the NAIA had to possess if it is to keep abreast of the latest developments in security procedures, including the upgrading of antiquated security paraphernalia.
“We need the latest machines and apparatus to keep the four NAIA terminals safe from harm and terrorist threat,†he said.
To be fitted with security gadgets, aside from the 30-year old NAIA 1, are the Centennial Terminal 2, the NAIA 3 and the Old Manila Domestic Airport.
Peñaflor said that among the items being considered are close-circuit television (CCTV), x-ray machines that could detect drugs, x-ray machines for detecting firearms and explosives, hand-held body-scanners, radio communications system and vehicles.
Peñaflor said plans include the strengthening of the entries and exit to the airport ramps. These call for the installations of bollards at the main gates, which are steel posts planted on the ground that could be retracted to allow the passage of vehicles, or extended to prevent their entry.
A string of bollards have been in place in many high-security places such as the US Embassy on Roxas Boulevard, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Philippine National Bank along Macapagal Avenue.
Peñaflor said that a Command Center would also be set up to keep track of all movements within the airport compound.
Peñaflor is a former Air Force general who was assigned in Jolo for nine years and was appointed by President Benigno Aquino III to the post, along with MIAA general manager Jose Angel Honrado.
Peñaflor said that upon assuming his first duty as Chief of Airport police, one of his first priorities was to subject some 300 policemen for retraining.
“Of course, we have to get rid of some scalawags and to retrain those that show promise to be good policemen,†he said.
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