Congressional action needed to rename NAIA, says Palace

MANILA – The proposal to rename Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) back to its original name, Manila International Airport (MIA), requires “congressional action,” Malacañang said Tuesday.

This, after Duterte Youth Rep. Ducielle Cardema filed House Bill 10822, seeking to revert the airport’s name to MIA to make is “easier” for travelers to locate the country’s international gateway and give Filipinos a “sense of pride”.

“There has to be a Congressional action to repeal Republic Act (RA) No. 6639 which renamed MIA to NAIA,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, also acting presidential spokesperson, said in an online Palace press briefing.

Andanar issued a statement as he acknowledged that the Supreme Court (SC) in 2020 junked a petition seeking to nullify RA 6639 that renames MIA to NAIA.

“It can be remembered that the Supreme Court in 2020 already junked a petition to nullify the said law,” he said.

Cardema, in the bill he filed on April 11, said naming the country’s airport as NAIA is a “self-serving and highly-politicized act.”

She made the remarks, as she noted that the airport was named NAIA in 1987 during the time of then president Corazon Aquino, the wife of Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983 at the Manila airport.

In September 2020, the SC dismissed for lack of merit the petition of lawyer Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon questioning the validity of RA 6639.

Gadon, in his petition, said former Benigno Aquino Jr. is not among the “pantheon” of declared official heroes of the country.

He added that the change in the name of the airport had been undertaken sans sufficient consultation with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and its precedent agency.

Gadon also claimed that the minimum number of years required after a death of a person before he can be honored with naming a public place after him was not observed.