MIAA mulls scrapping pest control contracts

MANILA International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Eric Ines is considering terminating the contracts of the pest control and housekeeping units at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for lapses in their services.

Ines made the announcement following rodent and bed bug infestations at the airport’s Terminals 2 and 3.

Ines said there were also lapses on the part of the private concessionaires in cleaning and maintaining the four terminal facilities.

“I saw the contracts and term of reference and it shows they only have eight personnel handling the terminal. This is not enough,” he said.

MIAA management will also ban passengers from placing bags or luggage on the airport’s fourseater chairs.

“We don’t have to penalize the passengers but we will strictly monitor it,” he said during Monday’s meeting with private pest control maintenance units.

MIAA Head Executive Assistant Chris Noel Bendijo said earlier the MIAA manager had ordered a review of the contracts.

Several air travelers had complained on social media of being bitten by bed bugs in the departure area of Terminal 2.

A few days later, passengers reported seeing a rat in Terminal 3.

Bendijo said replacing the service provider may not be easy since it requires a bidding process.

“What we can assure you is that by Monday, we will revisit our cleaning process. What might happen is that just for the sake of compliance, what is provided may be topical. We will look at their track record to see if there were any lapses and act on their commitment moving forward,” Bendijo said.

At the House of Representatives, OFW Party-list Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino called for an inquiry into NAIA’s passenger service practices.

Magsino on Monday filed House Resolution 1615 urging the appropriate House committees to conduct the investigation.

“We recognize that the officials of the Manila International Airport Authority immediately addressed the complaints on bed bugs, rats, and cockroaches in NAIA. However, given the repeated problems in NAIA and its tag as one of the world’s worst airports, we have to look into the compounded issues,” Magsino said.

The resolution also noted that “the airport’s passenger traffic, which includes both arriving and departing passengers, has been increasingly heavy.”

There were “various passenger complaints concerning missed flights due to the long queues at the immigration counters during peak surges in passenger arrival and departure and due to prolonged processing by immigration officers,” it said.