Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo said the move to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) was untimely and would affect the people’s sense of history.
A bill seeking to change the name of NAIA to the “Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Pilipinas” (PPP) or Philippine International Airport, had been filed at the House of Representatives.
“We are in the middle of a pandemic, and yet we are thinking about this. Number one, it’s ill-timed,” Robredo said in a CNN interview, explaining that all efforts must be focused on responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
“Number two, we know why it was named Ninoy Aquino International Airport. So, the question is, where is our sense of history?” she added, alluding that NAIA was named after and in honour of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.
Opposition senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Franklin Drilon nixed a move at the House of Representatives to rename Ninoy Aquino International Airport to PPP and echoed Robredo’s sentiment that it should be the least of lawmakers’ concern.
“That should be the least of our concerns now that we are facing the Covid-19 pandemic and millions have lost their jobs and are starving,” Pangilinan said in a Viber message to Senate reporters.
According to Drilon, the move is “divisive,” which the country needs the least in this time of a pandemic that affected the lives of too many Filipinos and put the economy to a standstill.
He said any effort to rename NAIA would always be seen as political. Thus, he said such a proposition should be put on hold.
“There is more to it than just a name. It gives a glimpse of who we are as a people. We are known as a democracy-loving people because that is what Ninoy Aquino represents,” Drilon added.
Aquino, a staunch critic of the dictatorship regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos, was assassinated at the airport in 1983.
The airport used to be called the Manila International Airport (MIA) and was renamed to NAIA in 1987 through Republic Act 6639.
Pangilinan is an ally of former President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd, son of the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr and former president Corazon Aquino.
Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte and two other congressmen — Marinduque Rep. Lord Alan Jay Velasco and ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Go Yap — recently filed a House bill that sought to change NAIA to PPP. House Bill 7031 states that the switch of the airport’s current name will easily “identify as the international doorway of the country in view of it being in Filipino language and branding it as the international airport of the Philippines.”
“We want it to reflect the legacy of the Filipino people, our everyday heroes. The name bears no colour, no political agenda. It only signifies our warmth as Filipinos in welcoming our kababayans (countrymen) and foreign visitors,” Rep. Duterte said.
Velasco, on the other hand, said the proposal would promote the Philippines as a choice tourist destination once it reopens after the Covid-19 pandemic.