Right after the bill seeking to rename Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) into Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport, another House Bill was filed. This time it seeks to rename NAIA back into Manila International Airport (MIA).

Duterte Youth Party-list Rep. Drixie Cardema filed House Bill (HB) No. 1253 on Tuesday, July 5, although a copy of the bill was only made available to the media on Thursday, July 7.

According to the explanatory note contained in the bill, “the name of the international gateway of the country should have not been politicized in the first place.”

“Our nation’s capital is named Manila, therefore our country’s international gateway to the world must be known as the Manila International Airport as a sense of pride for our country’s capital and for foreigners to easily locate our main gateway, when travelling to our country and across the world. In view of the foregoing, the passage of this measure is sought” the bill further explains.

It was also mentioned in the said bill that the administration of the late former President Corazon Aquino renamed the then-MIA to NAIA in connection with the death of her husband. 

Again, Cardema’s bill came after Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. filed a measure to rename Ninoy Aquino International Airport after former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

As for Teves, he said, “It is more appropriate to bear the name that has contributed and [left a] legacy in our country to make the Philippines a center of international and domestic air travel, who has instituted and built or conceptualized the project.”