Victory: No more terminal fees for OFWs

NAIA Terminal 3

STARTING next month,  overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be exempted again  from paying the P550 airport terminal fee.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Ed Monreal will meet on Mar. 15  with all airline officials or representatives for the signing of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in the abolition of  “the terminal fee”  at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.

The MOA signing will take place after the MIAA threshed out technical details and coordinated with the international airlines to reverse an  order issued by the previous management of NAIA headed by then MIAA general manager Jose Angel Honrado.

The reinstatement of OFWs exemption  from terminal fees was made following an order of President Rodrigo Duterte to implement the law that exempts all OFWs from paying terminal fee.

“Our OFWs are our modern-day  heroes [and they]  help our country’s economy to grow through their remittances,” Monreal said.

The MOA signing will take place at 11 a.m. on Mar. 15 and will be  attended by airlines executives, MIAA, Overseas Workers Welfare  Administration (OWWA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA),  the Susan Ople Foundation, OFW advocates and representatives of recruitment agencies to witness the signing.

In Feb. 2015, Honrado imposed the inclusion of the P550 terminal fee in the airline tickets purchased online and outside the country.

Instead of being exempted from paying the terminal fee, OFWs were told to refund the amount at the  Land Bank of the Philippines counter located at the departure area before boarding the aircraft.

Since the implementation of the of the collections of the airport’s terminal fee from OFWs,  more than P1.5 billion  have  been unclaimed by OFWs and remained in the general fund of the NAIA.

Monreal said OFWs can claim their refund by presenting the copy of their E-ticket, boarding pass, and passport.

Following the MOA signing, airlines are expected to  stop collecting the P550 terminal fee from all legitimate OFWs regardless  where their ticket was purchased.

On March 3, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III ordered airlines to stop including the travel tax and airport terminal fees in the cost of their tickets for OFWs.

In a letter to Director General Jim Sydiongco of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), Bello said OFWs are exempted from paying travel tax and terminal fees under the amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995.

“It has come to my attention that the travel tax and terminal fees are being included in the cost of the airline tickets issued to our OFWs.  While some OFWs were  refunded of these fees at the airport prior to their departure, most of them, however, were  not refunded because of lack of awareness  about this privilege or lack of time to process their claim for refund,” Bello said.

He also requested the CAAP to remit the travel tax and terminal fees that were not refunded to the OFWs to the OWWA.

“Considering that the inclusion of these travel tax and terminal fees in the cost of tickets has been a practice of airline companies for several years, we request that the travel tax and fees collected from our OFWs  which were not refunded to them be remitted to the OWWA,” Bello said.

The Labor chief also instructed the POEA and OWWA to coordinate with CAAP and the Manila International Airport Authority to immediately come up with a mechanism for the automatic exemption of OFWs  in paying  of travel tax and terminals.

In his letter, Bello requested the CAAP to tell government offices in various airport terminals to cease and desist from collecting tax and terminal fees from OFWs.

Bello’s letter was also sent to the following airlines: Air Asia, Air Asia Zesr, Air China, Air Niugini, All Nippon Airways, Aiana Airline, Cathay Pacific, Cebu  Pacifir Air, China Airline, China Eastern Airline, China Southern Airlines, Delta Air, DragonAir, Emirates Airlines, Ethiopian Airline,  Etihad, Eva Air, Gulf Air,  JapanAirlines,  Jeju Air, Jet Star Asia, Jin Air, KLM Royal Duth Airlines,Kuwait Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Mandarine Airlines, Oman Air, PAL Express, Philippine Airlines, Qantas Airlines Qatar Airways, Royal Brunei, Saudia Airlines, Skyjet, Singapore Airlines, Silk Air,  Thai Airways, Tiger Air, Tiger Airways, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines.

On Jan. 29, Filipino migrant workers met with Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod to discuss, among others, the collection of terminal fees.

The workers  said  OFWs were being forced to buy a new ticket or face losing their employment due to the system of refunding the terminal fee.

By law, OFWs are exempted from paying the terminal fee. The previous administration, however, implemented a blanket collection of terminal fee in air tickets with the provision for refund for OFWs.

Long queues in refund counters at Philippine airports resulted in cases of OFWs missing their flights.

Maglunsod met leaders and members of the group at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and promised to take up their concerns with Bello and  Duterte.