SC junks suit seeking to void law renaming MIA to NAIA

FILE: Facade of Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. (Photo By Mithril Cloud at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed for lack of merit the petition of lawyer Lorenzo “Larry” G. Gadon questioning the validity of the law which renamed the Manila International Airport to Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

“I was just informed by Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta that the Supreme Court during their en banc (full court) session yesterday (Tuesday), unanimously denied for lack of merit the petition for the declaration of nullity of Republic Act 6639 (An Act renaming the Manila International Airport as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport),” SC Public Information Chief and spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka said in a message to reporters on Wednesday.

In his petition filed on August 27, Gadon said former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. is not among the “pantheon” of declared official heroes of the country.

He also said the change in the name of the airport had also been undertaken without sufficient consultation with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and its precedent agency and failed to observe the minimum number of years required after a death of a person before he can be honored with naming a public place after him.

Gadon’s petition did not indicate any respondents but claimed members of the 8th Congress abused its discretion.

Aquino, an opposition senator and staunch critic of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law regime, was shot upon his arrival at the then Manila International Airport on Aug. 21, 1983.