Labor Secretary Silvestre H Bello III has ordered airline companies to desist from incorporating the cost of travel tax and terminal fee in the cost of their tickets issued to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
OFWs are exempted from paying travel tax and terminal fees based on Presidential Decree No. 1183 and RA 8042, or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995, as Amended by RA 10022, Philippine News Agency quoted Bello, in his letter to Director General Jim Sydiongco of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), as saying.
“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,” said Bello.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III has requested for all unrefunded fees to be remitted to OWWA, an attached agency of DOLE mandated to serve OFWs, reported Rappler.
The CAAP was also reportedly asked to cease and desist from collecting travel tax and fees from OFWs and to stop airlines from incorporating them into their ticket costs.
Likewise, Bello reportedly ordered OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac and Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) OIC-Administrator Dominador Say to coordinate with CAAP in creating a new mechanism that will automatically exempt OFWs from these payments.
According to section 35 of RA 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act, OFWs should be exempted from the “payment of travel tax and airport fee upon proper showing of the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) issued by the POEA,” said the news portal.
But, according to the letter sent on February 21 by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to CAAP, these fees are being incorporated into the cost of airline tickets. OFWs have to line up at refund counters at airports to be reimbursed.
The sector and their advocates had repeatedly complained about the process, which was meant to improve overall passenger convenience at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the report said.
The labor department reportedly said that most OFWs don’t get their refunds “because of lack of awareness about this privilege or lack of material time to process their claim for refund at the airport.”
On November 29, 2016, Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Ed Monreal said that airlines have “agreed in principle” on a plan to automatically exempt all OFWs from terminal fees which will be implemented by March 2017. This is to give the airlines time to update their programs and systems, Rappler quoted him as saying.
