{"id":259975,"date":"2020-06-30T23:52:48","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T03:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=259975"},"modified":"2020-06-30T23:54:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T03:54:28","slug":"passenger-convenience-in-naia-remains-prrds-priority-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/30\/passenger-convenience-in-naia-remains-prrds-priority-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Passenger convenience in NAIA remains PRRD’s priority: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on June 30, 2020. SIMEON CELI JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo R. Duterte\u2019s preference to remove restaurants at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to make room for more seats is because he prioritizes passengers over businesses, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the remark after the President instructed Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade on Tuesday night to get rid of some restaurants at the country\u2019s main gateway following reports of stranded passengers camping outside while waiting for their flights.<\/p>\n

Roque said the President noticed that there were not enough seats for passengers waiting for commercial flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mandate of the President yesterday (Tuesday) was no one should be left sleeping outside just because there\u2019s not enough space in the airport. If need be, get rid of the commercial establishments because the priority should be the passengers and not the businesses,\u201d he said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel\u2019s Headstart.<\/p>\n

Roque said the President recognizes the need for passengers to also buy food while waiting for their flights but noted that seats at the NAIA were lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as possible, he wants more seat capacity so that the passengers won\u2019t have to leave the airport facilities and go outside to wait for their flights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque said people stranded at airports were locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and not overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were immediately brought home to their respective provinces after undergoing quarantine and testing.<\/p>\n

He, however, said that both LSIs and OFWs are qualified to receive assistance until their flights are ready to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President\u2019s order is to house them and to feed them and (Interior) Secretary (Eduardo) A\u00f1o assured the President that \u2018we are doing this\u2019,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

In a public address late Tuesday night, Duterte asked Tugade to remove some restaurants at the NAIA to make room for more seats for passengers, saying the thought of passengers standing while waiting for their flights bothered him.<\/p>\n

The President also ordered A\u00f1o to gather LSIs camping near NAIA and provide them with food and shelter as they wait for their flights.<\/p>\n

The national government has begun assisting LSIs by bringing them to the Villamor Airbase Elementary School and the Philippine State College of Aeronautics to receive food and accommodation as they wait for available transportation.<\/p>\n

The government has earlier launched the \u201cHatid Tulong\u201d program to assist LSIs stranded in Metro Manila due to travel restrictions imposed during the quarantine period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo R. Duterte\u2019s preference to remove restaurants at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to make room for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":259976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259977,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259975\/revisions\/259977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}