SC junks petition to outlaw NAIA – The Manila Times

The Supreme Court has thrown out a petition to outlaw the law that changed the name of Manila International Airport to Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), its spokesman said.

In a statement, attorney Brian Hosaka said the en banc voted unanimously to dismiss attorney Larry Gadon’s petition for lack of merit.

“The president of the Supreme Court Diosdado Peralta has just informed me that the Supreme Court, during its En Banc session yesterday, September 8, 2020, unanimously denied the petition for the declaration of nullity of the Republic Law for lack of merit 6639 (Act to change the name of Manila International Airport as Ninoy Aquino International Airport), ”Hosaka said on Wednesday.

In a 16-page petition, Gadon pleaded with the higher court to declare Republic Law 6636 void for violating existing rules and laws.

Gadon, through his lawyer and Manila Times columnist Al Vitangcol 3rd, wanted the high court to force the government to return the airport to its old name.

Gadon argued that the Guidelines of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), pursuant to paragraph 6 of Section 4, “stated that no public place should be named or renamed after a person within 10 years of its death, except for important reasons. “

Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino 3rd was assassinated on the MIA track on August 21, 1983. MIA was renamed the NAIA in November 1987.

“That was only 4 years from the death to the name change, which violated this cited guide,” the document says.

Gadon stressed that Aquino was not exceptional in character.

Gadon said Aquino does not deserve to be declared a hero because, according to declassified US State Department documents on June 30, 2005, “the subversion allegations against Aquino are not new and may have some basis in fact.”

In fact, Gadon said, Aquino was found guilty of subversion by former President Ferdinand Marcos’s Military Commission and was sentenced to death, but he did not go ahead.

“Furthermore, former Senator Aquino was not even declared a hero of this country. Why then would a first-rate airport bear his name? The Law of the Republic 6639 should then be declared by this Honorable Supreme Court as null, illegal and without effect ”, he added.