Congress has been urged to investigate an alleged breach of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) privatization agreement.

In a joint statement, two major labor groups — the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino and the National Confederation of Labor (NCL) — claimed the government failed to activate a mandatory independent consultant tasked with monitoring the concession agreement.

In 2024, the Department of Transportation and the Manila International Airport Authority signed a multibillion-peso deal with New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. (NNIC), a consortium led by San Miguel Corp., to modernize the country’s primary gateway.

“The Filipino people were promised modernization. What they are now seeing is the slow surrender of public accountability, labor protection and national sovereignty,” the groups said.

The labor groups urged lawmakers to determine whether the government had surrendered excessive control of NAIA to private interests and to review the national security implications of the privatization framework. They also called on Congress to suspend or cancel provisions of the public-private partnership that they said were detrimental to the public.

According to the groups, the independent consultant mechanism was ignored because it was deemed too expensive. Without this safeguard, they argued, there is no independent entity to protect the public from a corporate overreach at an airport that handles more than 50 million passengers annually.

“This is not a simple technical violation. This is a dangerous collapse of independent oversight in one of the country’s most critical national infrastructures. A privatization contract without independent oversight is nothing more than a blank check handed to corporate interests,” the groups said.

The labor organizations also raised concerns over border protection, anti-smuggling operations and emergency response capabilities at the gateway amid rising regional geopolitical tensions.

“NAIA is not an ordinary business venture. It is the country’s primary international gateway, directly tied to national security, anti-smuggling operations, anti-trafficking enforcement, emergency response and border protection. Have we subcontracted national security?” the groups asked.

They said that while the NNIC is assured of profit, the workers face displacement and small businesses risk collapse under the new airport management.

In a separate statement, PUSO ng NAIA industry group president Romeo Sauler said the contractor immediately shifted the financial burden of the modernization onto ordinary Filipinos by increasing airport fees and travel costs during a period of high inflation and a weak local currency.

“The privatization of the NAIA was sold to Filipinos as the ‘golden ticket’ to modernization. But months into the deal, the public is asking: modernization for whom? Certainly not for the ordinary traveler, worker, OFW, or small entrepreneur,” Sauler said.

He said the skyrocketing rental rates in the terminals forced many small businesses to close or scale down their operations, resulting in immediate job losses.

A coalition of consumer organizations, commuter advocates, labor federations, migrant workers rights groups and policy experts has also met with lawyers to plan legal and political actions against the concession agreement.