Use travel tax, fees paid by 32 M passengers in ridding NAIA
of worst airport tag

Lack of money can never be an excuse in not improving security and passenger comfort arrangements in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport as three government agencies derive much of their combined annual P16.5 billion income from what has been tagged as "the world's worst airport."

Sen. Ralph G. Recto said even a fraction of the fees paid by passengers and planes to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) for use of NAIA will be enough to install "clean toilets, CCTVs and comfortable couches" in its four terminals.

"If a mall charges a mere P10 for the use of a hotel-like toilet, I can't see why a Filipino travelling abroad who pays P550 in terminal fee and P1,620 in travel tax should be entitled to less," Recto said.

In 2012, MIAA posted a gross operating income of P8.28 billion and a net income after tax of P2.64 billion. Of its gross, P3.3 billion came from "toll and terminal fees" paid by departing passengers, who cough up P550 if bound for abroad, and P200 if headed for domestic destinations.

2012 was also a banner year for another "airport toll agency," the TIEZA, which raked in P3.5 billion in "travel tax" levied on 2,271,468 departing passengers.

Its collection would have been higher if not for the exemption granted by law to overseas Filipino workers, 443,868 of whom were reported to have exited in 2012.

Recto said CAAP is also a money-maker posting a gross income of P4.7 billion and a net income of P1.93 billion in 2012.

While CAAP derives its income from pilot licensing fees and aircraft airworthiness certificates, what cannot be denied is that most of the holders of these use the country's premier airport, Recto said.

He commended CAAP's move to bankroll the installation of CCTVs in NAIA's Terminal 3 which he said "must be the template in using internally-generated income to improve the NAIA complex."

He urged TIEZA to follow CAAP's lead and plow back some of the tax it collects from NAIA-exiting passengers in providing more amenities inside its four terminals.

In fact, compared to Congress, the three, being government corporations with the authority to use their income, can easily allocate funds for NAIA-improvement projects, Recto said.

"Hindi kasama sa national budget ang pag-gasta ng kita at pondo nila, kaya mas madali silang maglaan ng pondo kung drinking fountains, couches at malinis na comfort rooms lang ang bibilhin," he said.

Recto said NAIA has a "huge base of paying customers," some 31,558,002 passengers in 2012 alone. The fleet expansion of local budget airlines plus the projected uptick in foreign tourist arrival ensures "strong revenue flow" in the years ahead.

The NAIA, he said, also collects fees from airport concessionaires like food stalls and taxis.

Recto made the proposal of tapping fees collected from use of NAIA after its Terminal 1 was voted the worst airport in the world by the travel website Sleeping In Airports two years in a row in 2012.

While the government has notched success in the piecemeal sprucing up of NAIA's passenger terminals, two events in the past month underscored its other shortcomings.

The first occurred in Dec. 20 when gunmen wearing police uniforms killed a Zamboanga Sur mayor and three others, including a child in a car hit by stray bullets, in the arrival gate of Terminal 3.

When police later tried to get a video footage of the ambush, NAIA officials admitted that no CCTVs were installed in the area, despite its heavy foot traffic.

On Dec. 30, a man, described by the police as "deranged", managed to climb the airport perimeter fence and reached a Kuwait Airlines jet before he was accosted by airport police.

Just like Terminal 3's arrival area, no CCTV camera was installed in that section of the fence.