COORDINATION. Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Area Manager Efren Nagrama assures they will closely coordinate with the Antique provincial government for incoming flights during a meeting in Binirayan Gymnasium in San Jose de Buenavista in Antique on Thursday (July 30, 2020). Governor Rhodora Cadiao called Nagrama's attention after a medical evacuation arrived at the Antique Airport last July 28 without proper coordination with the provincial government. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) on Thursday gave its assurance to closely coordinate with the provincial government for incoming flights to the Antique Airport.
This, as Governor Rhodora Cadiao asked CAAP Western Visayas regional area manager Efren Nagrama to explain why an air ambulance landed at the Antique Airport on Tuesday without prior coordination with the provincial government.
“There was a medevac (medical evacuation) from Cuyo (Palawan) because of the patient who needed emergency treatment,” Nagrama said during the meeting of the Antique Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the League of Municipalities in the Philippines (LMP) Antique Chapter at the Binirayan Gymnasium.
He said the medevac is one of the exemptions to the suspension of flights by the CAAP and the IATF due to Covid-19.
Cadiao said she already called the attention of the CAAP since it was the second time that a plane landed at the Antique Airport without any coordination with the provincial government.
“The first one was a private plane from Tacloban that also landed (on May 15, 2020) at the Antique Airport,” she said.
Onboard that plane was the assistant district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) assigned in Tacloban.
Antique Provincial Board Member Vincent Piccio said the protest letter for the first offense they sent to the regional office of the CAAP remains unanswered up to now.
Nagrama admitted to having received the letter, which he forwarded to CAAP Central Office. “I will have to follow it up,” he said.
Integrated Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Leoncio Abiera, Jr., who was also present during the meeting, said the 47- year -old patient from Cuyo had coordinated with the Bugasong local government unit about his arrival at the Antique Airport.
The patient is a resident of Bugasong, but has a business in Cuyo, hence the coordination was done with the said municipality. The Bugasong LGU, however, did not inform the governor nor sent an ambulance to fetch the patient at the airport.
“I took the risk to accept the patient who is still admitted at the Antique Medical Center (AMC) because of tonsillectomy,” Abiera said.
He said the patient from Cuyo could not be offloaded from the medevac without the acceptance from the provincial government or the municipal government as a matter of protocol by the CAAP.
“Rest assured that we will not let any patient go out of the airport premises without the LGU acceptance,” Nagrama said.
Cadiao said that she does not even have knowledge about the patient and how many companions he has on the medevac.
“If we knew about the arrival of the patient earlier on, we could have even sent an ambulance to fetch him on time,” she said. (PNA)
