Claim: NAIA was built during the administration of Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos
Rating: FALSE
The Facts: Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., who is the Negros Oriental 3rd District Representative, filed House Bill 610 which seeks to rename Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport.
Teves said: “it is more appropriate to rename it to the person who has contributed to the idea and execution of the said noble project.”
He also claims that the airport was “done during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.”
According to the Official Gazette of the Philippines, the construction of the airport, then known as the Manila International Airport, started in 1947 under the presidency of Manuel Roxas.
Its first international runway was completed during Elpidio Quirino’s term in 1953.
Marcos Sr. assumed office as president 12 years later in 1965.
Its origin goes back. It was used as the commercial airport of the Philippine Aerial Taxi Company (later Philippine Airlines) in the 1930s. In 1937, it was named the Manila International Air Terminal.
The official page of the Manila International Airport Authority also states that the airport was a United States Air Force base until its turnover to the Philippine government in 1948, and at that time, it only had a domestic runway and a small passenger terminal.
In 1953 upon completion of the international runway, the airport started taking international flights as the Manila International Airport.
In 1961, a control tower and separate terminal building exclusively for international flights were built.
Again, this was all before Marcos Sr. became president in 1965.
The Manila International Airport was renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in 1987 after the late senator Benigno Aquino Jr. through Republic Act 6639.
Ninoy was assassinated at the airport during the Marcos dictatorship in 1983. Even if Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was not the mastermind of the assassination, he still had a hand in the crime. And the killing at the airport was the sparkplug of the resistance that eventually led to the downfall of the Marcoses in 1986.
Why we fact-checked this: If Rep. Teves intends to erroneously give the credit for the construction of the airport to Ferdinand E. Marcos, this will only lead Marcos back to his association with the assassination of Benigno Aquino, something the Marcoses would not want to be part of.
ADVERTISEMENT
