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New Year snag: Airport chaos Air traffic glitch cancels, delays 282 flights, affecting 56,000 passengers
VOL. XXXVI • NO. 320• 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 MONDAY, MONDAY JANUARY 2, 2023 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
By Darwin G. Amojelar, Joel E. Zurbano and Macon Ramos-Araneta
HAOS greeted travelers going into Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on New Year’s Day as technical problems with its air navigation facilities led to 268 flight cancellations on Sunday – a glitch affecting the entire Philippines and hassling about 56,000 passengers, the Department of Transportation said.
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The six-hour shutdown of air traffic going in and out of NAIA, the Philippines’ premier airport, led to a total of 282 flights across the country getting canceled, delayed, or diverted to other regional airports. Next page
NAIA BEDLAM.
A screen shows flight information at Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay on January 1, as a glitch in the airport's air navigation system led to a six-hour shutdown of air traffic on New Year's Day. Thousands of passengers crammed into the departure gates while their planes were forced to park or call off flights altogether, as airport workers handed out food and drinks to ease their wait (inset photos). AFP
Beijing puts ‘high importance’ PH on heightened alert for COVID-19 on PBBM’s state visit to China By Willie Casas
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is the first world leader to be welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2023 – a sign of the “high importance” accorded by both Manila and Beijing to bilateral relations, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. "President Marcos will be the first foreign head of state China will receive in the new year,” Wang said in a press briefing in Beijing.
"This will be President Marcos’s first visit to China after taking office and his first official visit to a non-ASEAN country. It fully demonstrates the high importance China and the Philippines attach to bilateral relations," he added. Wang said the bilateral meeting between the two leaders during Mr. Marcos’ threeday state visit from Jan. 3 to 5 will allow them to” jointly chart the course forward for Next page our relationship.”
DOH: Less firecracker injuries PNP: Revelry mainly peaceful THE Department of Health logged a 14 percent decrease in the number of firecracker-related injuries in 2022 compared to the previous year as the Philippine National Police said New Year revelries have been generally peaceful except for at least three indiscriminate firing incidents. "There is a 14 percent decrease in cases
recorded in all regions as of this morning," DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a press conference at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) after making the rounds of the facility's trauma unit and nonCOVID-19 emergency room. The department has recorded a total of Next page
AS the Philippines goes on "heightened alert" as a surge of COVID-19 cases in China triggers global concern, travelers from the communist country now face restrictions when entering more than a dozen countries, with Australia the latest to demand a negative test before arrival. In a Dec. 31 memorandum, all
Philippine Department of Health-Centers for Health Development (DOH-CHD) were instructed to prepare and augment resources, especially telemedicine providers, in case of an increase in patients with respiratory symptoms. All CHDs were enjoined to ramp up information dissemination on the importance of layers of protection, including wearing masks, getting the most updated
vaccines, and self-isolation if unwell. Meanwhile, Australia's health minister on Sunday cited Beijing's "lack of comprehensive information" about COVID cases as the reasoning behind the travel requirement, which will take effect on January 5. The move will "safeguard Australia from the risk of potential new emerging variants," he said. Next page
Pope, Marcos pay tribute to Benedict XVI POPE Francis hailed the "beloved" Benedict XVI on Sunday in a New Year's Day service at the Vatican while President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. extended the Philippines' sympathies to the late pontiff’s loved ones. "Today we entrust the beloved pope emeritus Benedict XVI to the most holy mother (the Virgin Mary), to accompany him in his passage from this world to God," Francis said a day after his predecessor died. On his official Twitter account on Saturday, Mr. Marcos said: “We are in deep sorrow upon learning of the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI today. The Philippines is one in offering our prayers for the eternal repose of his soul. We keep his loved ones in our prayers,” he said. In the Philippines, church-goers lit candles and prayed before a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI at the Church of Christ chapel inside Manila Cathedral on Sunday. Next page
PRAYERS FOR BENEDICT.
Churchgoers light candles and pray before a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI inside the Church of Christ chapel in Manila Cathedral in Intramuros on Sunday, while others queue to sign their names on a condolences book for the late leader of the Catholic Church, who died Saturday at 95. Danny Pata
Death toll from flooding up to 49, missing 22, injured 16 NEW YEAR BABE. Melanie Soriano gives birth to her first child, Nathalie,
at exactly 12 midnight on January 1, 2023 at Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila. Norman Cruz
THE reported death toll from the flooding Most of the deaths were from Northern 141,000 families or 553,000 people were that hit parts of Mindanao, Bicol, and Mindanao, the council said inits latest affected by the floods caused by the shear Visayas has risen to 49, the National report issued at 6 a.m. Sunday. The floods line across 10 regions. Disaster Risk Reduction and Management also left 16 wounded and 22 missing. Nine roads and three bridges, mostly in Council (NDRRMC) said Sunday. The NDRRMC also said more than Next page