Robredo: Renaming NAIA amid COVID-19 is ill-timed, revises history

Renaming the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), moreso amid the pandemic, is ill-timed, Vice President Leni Robredo said Friday.

Robredo was referring to the measure proposed by House Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte, Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco, and ACT-CIS Representative Eric Yap renaming NAIA as Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Pilipinas. The measure was filed on June 25.

“Nasa gitna tayo ng pandemya, ito pa talaga ang maiisip. Number one, it is ill-timed,” Robredo said in an interview over CNN-Philippines.

“When I first read it…ngayon pa talaga? Now that we need all hands on deck at magtulong-tulong para labanan ang pandemya?” Robredo added.

The Philippines has recorded 33,069 COVID-19 cases so far. Of this number, 8,910 have recovered while 1,212 died.

Based on government records, over seven million also lost their jobs as a result of the varying lockdown protocols which required social distancing and prohibition of mass gathering.

Revising history

Likewise, Robredo said that such a move to rename NAIA is an attempt to erase history.

“Alam naman natin why it was named Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Where is our sense of history?” Robredo asked.

NAIA was named after the late opposition leader and Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., a staunch critic of the late dictator President Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino Jr. was assassinated upon his arrival at what was then the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983. He was shot in the head.

Aquino Jr.'s gruesome death intensified protests against the Marcos regime until he was eventually ousted from power after a three-day bloodless People Power Revolution on February 25, 1986. The historic event catapulted Aquino’s wife, Corazon, to the presidency. —AOL/RSJ, GMA News