Court declares integrated terminal fee ‘unenforceable’

A Pasay City court has declared the controversial Integrated Terminal Fee “unenforceable” after the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) failed to publish it in a newspaper of national circulation as required by law.

In a ruling dated November 19, 2014, Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 109 Presiding Judge Tingaraan Guiling said the MIAA Memorandum Circular Order 8, promulgated last September 15, "lacks proper legal implementation."

"The Court holds and believes that Memorandum Circular No. 8 needs publication as mandated by law and, as well as jurisprudence on the matter," Guiling said in his decision. "Bereft and absence of any publication, the said Memorandum Circular No. 8 is unenforceable."

Supposedly enforced last November 1, the ITF was meant to integrate the P550 terminal fee into plane tickets purchased overseas or online.

OFW groups opposed to the measure, citing Republic Act 10022 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, which exempts OFWs — or overseas Filipino workers — from terminal fee.

Arguing that the process for refunds were an added burden for returning migrant workers, OFW groups filed a petition last October seeking a temporary restraining order against the implementation of MC No. 8 — a request the court granted.

The groups asked for more consultations with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Department of Foreign Affairs and better information dissemination to alert migrant workers who know nothing of the new scheme.

OFW party-list Rep. Roy V. Seneres, meanwhile, welcomed the court's decision.

In a post on Facebook, he said  MC No. 8 would have “deprived the OFWs of their statutory right to be exempted from payment of airport terminal fees.”

“We cannot surmise why the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication and President Benigno Aquino III could not ignore the pleas of OFWs to abrogate Memorandum Circular No. 8,” said Seneres. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News