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MANILA - A program commemorating the death anniversary of Senator Ninoy Aquino changed its traditional venue on Tuesday due to the recent closure of a runway in the airport named after him.

The program led by former senator Heherson Alvarez has been held for years at the tarmac ramp 11 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), where Aquino was assassinated 35 years ago.

Authorities rejected the group's request to hold the program at the tarmac again this year because airport traffic is heavy after the reopening of its main runway that was blocked over the weekend by a Chinese jetliner, Alvarez told radio DZMM.

Alvarez's group held its program and offered flowers instead in front of NAIA, where a monument of Aquino is located.

NAIA's primary runway was shuttered from Thursday evening to Saturday noon after a Boeing 737 jetliner of Xiamen Airlines ripped off its left engine during a bumpy landing. Some 200 flights were cancelled due to the incident, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.

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Ninoy Aquino Day, which commemorates the senator's death anniversary, is a holiday.

It coincides with the Muslim feast of Eid’l Adha that marks the descent of pilgrims as they complete the annual Hajj in Mecca. President Rodrigo Duterte has declared the feast as a regular holiday.

Report from Henry Atuelan, ABS-CBN News