MANILA, DECEMBER 7, 2010 (STAR) By Rudy Santos - Passengers’ waiting lines are unusually long and the situation could get worse during the holidays, spilling over into the start of the new year at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport as foreign carriers feud with NAIA Customs personnel.
The latest installment in the yearlong dispute is the decision of the Airline Operators Council (AOC) to stop providing arrival cards to passengers on international flights.
AOC chairperson and KLM assistant station manager Maria Lourdes Reyes wrote a letter to NAIA Customs collector Carlos So, saying the carriers would no longer provide arrival cards effective Jan. 1, 2011.
The termination of the voluntary supply agreement for the cards, distributed to all incoming international passengers, was unanimously approved during a general membership meeting of the AOC at the NAIA last week.
The AOC has been providing arrival cards and Customs declaration forms for the NAIA terminals, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport at Clark, Pampanga, totaling around 1.5 million copies a month.
The AOC letter came at the heels of the letter of Delta Air country manager Steven Crowdey, first vice chairman of the Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), to Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez requesting him to stop the strike or disruption of service at the airport by his men.
The strike is reportedly due to the non-payment of the overtime rendered for the BAR by Customs personnel for the last 16 months.
Crowdey had said the work slowdown would greatly affect the tourism industry’s bid to attract more visitors to the country.
The AOC said the country is facing yet another problem with unruly Customs personnel taking their revenge on innocent passengers.
The BAR, whose officials lead the AOC, had received reports that personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) cease service after office hours or at 5 p.m. during weekdays and would not report for work during weekends and holidays.
The BAR had refused to pay the Customs workers’ overtime fees after the Court of Appeals, where the BOC lodged its complaint, ruled in favor of the air carriers.
Since the strike, there have been many instances where the BOC booth at the airport was undermanned, forcing arriving passengers to form long lines waiting for their clearance.
Some BOC officials said there are still employees who render service even after 5 p.m. during weekdays and who work during weekends and holidays for humanitarian consideration.
According to the AOC, the move of the BOC was intended to agitate the passengers and prompt them to hate the airline companies.
For the last 10 years, the AOC had been printing and distributing the arrival cards to all Philippine-bound passengers for free.
The country used up about 22 million copies a year, with Philippine Airlines being the biggest user at five million copies, followed by Cebu Pacific with three million copies.
The AOC also reiterated that suggestions made by some quarters for the BOC men to work in shifts, like the rest of other airport employees, should be taken seriously.
The AOC said the charging of overtime fees has become a neat racket.
The AOC further said it remains a puzzle why the government seems to be slow in addressing an impending airport mess, especially because the holiday season is fast approaching and thousands of balikbayans, tourists and overseas Filipino workers are expected to spend their vacation in the country.
Earlier, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said he is working on solving the various problems affecting the tourism industry.
Lim said he is trying to address the festering complaint of foreign carriers on the practice of immigration, Customs and quarantine of billing the airlines overtime charges for flight arrivals and departures after office hours.
Lim said he agrees with the principle that Customs, immigration and quarantine are Philippine government requirements that must be provided on a 24/7 basis and all costs must be borne by the government.
New NAIA Customs men dispatched By Rudy Santos (The Philippine Star) Updated December 07, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (15)
MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC), in response to the threat of the Airline Operators Council (AOC) to stop supplying customs declaration forms effective January, dispatched some 78 newly hired Customs personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals who have started working in shifts.
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez told dzRH yesterday morning that those who work on a 24-hour shift will enjoy night differential pay. The BOC will also start looking for a printing company that will bid for the printing of Customs declaration forms, he said.
“This is an opportunity for us to review the situation,” he said, referring to the AOC’s decision to cease providing forms next year.
The move was seen as retaliation for the shabby treatment the airlines have been receiving since they stopped paying airport officials overtime for the last 16 months.
The AOC said unruly Customs personnel are taking revenge on innocent passengers.
Delta Air country manager Steven Crowdey, Board of Airline Representatives (BAR) first vice chairman, had requested Alvarez to stop his men from disrupting the service at the airport.
However, Alvarez said that the reported conflicts were blown out of proportion and that they have already taken steps to address the issues.
He said he is wondering why the overtime pay became an issue considering that he has already talked to Philippine Airlines (PAL) president Jimmy Bautista since Dec. 3.
Bautista reportedly agreed to give an initial payment to the 412 BOC employees assigned at NAIA.
Based on the old rate, the BOC-NAIA employees reportedly charge P10 million a month, and accumulated a backlog of P160 million during the last 16 months.
The 412 employees were from the arrival, departure, collection, export division, and Aircraft Operations Division.
As to reports that some BOC employees appeared to have gone on strike thus causing long queues, the Customs chief said that he has already formed a backup team that underwent training to take over the abandoned posts.
The BAR and BOC were scheduled to meet yesterday afternoon and Alvarez is optimistic the problem would have a permanent solution.
The BOC personnel are reportedly requesting a 100 percent increase in their overtime pay.
The BAR, of which PAL is a member, said they are willing to pay the last five months’ worth of overtime of the airport personnel.
Alvarez said that for the last 16 months, some personnel have been rendering service beyond office hours, despite the court ruling favoring the BAR not to shoulder overtime pay.
The AOC and the BOC have been in disagreement over the issue of overtime pay of some 400 customs officers assigned at the premier airport.
Eventually, the issue was addressed by the Court of Appeals, who ruled that the BAR is entitled to their claim not to shoulder the overtime pay of government workers.
Alvarez also denied news reports linking the overtime pay with the customs declaration forms issue and that the threat of AOC to stop printing the cards is not a cause of concern because it would still take effect on Jan. 1 and by then he would have already come up with a viable answer.
Instead of relying on the AOC to produce the customs declaration forms, the Customs chief said they could take over the task and directly talk to advertisers such as Smart Communications.
He believed that the telecommunications firm would continue to advertise in the customs declaration forms since they are getting very good exposure.
Alvarez has already informally discussed the proposal with a Smart marketing executive who reportedly said that in principle they are interested to tie up with the BOC and just need to check on their agreement with AOC.
The BOC, for their part, would have to consult the Commission on Audit (COA).
The BOC uses about 1.5 million pieces of customs declaration forms issued at the NAIA, Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark.
Alvarez said that there are a lot of firms which would apply to print the forms, especially if their company name could be carried on the forms as a way of advertising or promotion.
“We can start looking for bidders,” Alvarez said, but added that the BOC would have to confer with the AOC and PAL to clarify their statement withdrawing the supply of cards.
However, the mess has affected foreign visitors and the Department of Tourism seemed powerless to help them.
“We have already been receiving numerous complaints from arriving foreign visitors, but I really have no control over the problem,” Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said, adding that he already met with BOC officials and asked them to resolve the problem immediately because it could adversely affect foreign arrivals in the country.
Lim said the BOC promised to assign personnel by shift so that they could provide 24-hour service at the airports without collecting overtime pay starting next year.
“To resolve the issue, BOC agreed to have three shifts of personnel starting January,” Lim explained, adding that the BOC would also be seeking supplementary budget from Congress or require additional airport tax to cover the salaries of their personnel.
He said that Congress may also come out with a new measure junking the mandatory three percent carrier tax imposed on foreign airlines operating in the country.
Only in the Philippines
But lawmakers have other things in mind.
Aklan Rep. Florencio Miraflores, chairman of the House committee on tourism, said President Aquino should immediately order the scrapping of the scheme that makes airlines pay for the overtime pay of customs, immigration and personnel that is making the Philippines a laughingstock and a poor investment and tourist destination.
He said it was both “unfair” and “unusual” that private airlines are made to pay for overtime work of government personnel for rendering services that are expected of them in the first place.
He said the practice of having private local and foreign carriers pay for overtime work is happening not only at the NAIA but in other international airports in the country as well.
“There’s no other solution to this mess but to scrap this practice. Imagine, 300 to 400 passengers coming in from just one of so many flights in a day all crowding in one airport,” Miraflores told The STAR.
Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco said the policy runs counter to efforts to make the country competitive for investments and tourism.
“Many of those (foreigners) coming in may have set their travel plans for the holidays to the Philippines but with this kind of experience, I doubt if they will come back and most likely, they will tell stories about the horrible experience of just entering the country. Mind you, official figures show that we have about one to two million visitors a year so you have one or two million tourists telling others of their bad experience at our airports,” Haresco said.
He said this kind of policy could be the reason why the Philippines, with a population of over 90 million, can hardly get three million tourists every year compared to Malaysia with less than 30 million residents getting anywhere from 20 to 25 million tourists annually.
Joseph Ray Gumabon, an executive assistant at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, on the other hand, urged lawmakers to first address safety issues at the NAIA and other airports before considering policy changes aimed at boosting tourist arrivals in the country.
Gumabon told the House transportation committee that before the government overhauls tourism-related polices, it should upgrade airport facilities to ensure flight safety.
He said the country’s aviation infrastructure “must maintain the required level of international safety compliance” for future policy changes in aviation and tourism to yield positive results.
Palace: Sit down and talk
But Malacañang said it is leaving it up to immigration and customs officials to settle the contentious issue among themselves.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the government is now trying to find ways to pay the overtime fees of Customs personnel after the Supreme Court ruled that these should have been borne by the government, and not the airport management.
Nonetheless, he said the issues will have to be threshed out by the two concerned agencies, which means Immigration commissioner officer-in-charge Rey Ledesma and Customs commissioner Alvarez will have to discuss the problem.
But the problem is that there is no law that requires the Bureau of Customs to pay overtime.
Lacierda, however, pointed out that the issue is already being addressed.
“In fact, they are planning to do a measure to be able to pay. The income of the airport is big. But they still have to discuss the issue because this is primarily the responsibility of the Bureau of Customs,” he said. “There are already suggestions but I would rather that Alvarez make the announcement about the steps they undertake.”
No ‘Merry Christmas’ at the airport
Meanwhile, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Jose Honrado appealed to airport workers to stop greeting arriving passengers a merry Christmas.
“Please don’t say Merry Christmas or Happy New Year because this might be misinterpreted as asking for bribes. Simply smile or greet them good morning, as the case may be,” he said.
The MIAA had been appealing to airport workers, especially during the approach of the holiday season, to refrain from greeting arriving balikbayans, overseas Filipino workers and tourists. – With Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan, Rainier Allan Ronda
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