Int'l airline execs bare Customs collection anomaly

MANILA, Philippines - Airport Customs officials could be held liable for malversation of more than P2 billion in public funds representing overtime, meals and transportation fees they collected from international airlines, which they allegedly pocketed.

In a statement, the Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), an organization of executives of international airlines operating in the country, said they have been paying the so-called Customs-Immmigration-Quarantine (CIQ) fees for the “overtime services” of Customs personnel since the early 1990s.

Check payments for the “collector of Customs” alone totaled P200 million, BAR said.

BAR stopped paying CIQ fees in 2009 when it went to court to question its collection. 

BAR said airport Customs officials have abused the collection of CIQ fees, claiming they have also been collecting meal and transportation allowances from airline companies.

“And if four flights come in, they charge four times for the same hour that they were there,” BAR said.

 “We are being coerced to pay because Customs people are so powerful at the airport. They could delay our flights for the flimsiest of reasons, causing passengers a lot of inconvenience,” BAR said in its statement. 

BAR said some Customs officials even wanted to double the payments using the P50 per $1 exchange rate starting in 2005.

“When we asked why they want it doubled when they are not spending in dollars, they (Customs officials) replied that it is because we, the airlines, earn in dollars,” BAR said.

BAR said NAIA is the only airport in the world that charges CIQ fees to international airlines.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines blamed “current economic circumstances,” citing high “taxes” imposed on the airline by the Philippine government, when it announced the other day that it was stopping its flights to Manila.

Before KLM dropped out of its Manila-Europe route, Lufthansa of Germany stopped its direct flights from Manila to Europe in 2008.