DOTr, CAAP have no contractual obligation to compensate passengers —Bautista

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) have no contractual obligation to refund passengers affected by the hours-long shutdown of the Philippine airspace due to a power supply glitch on New Year’s Day, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said Wednesday.

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Bautista said the legality of compensating affected air travelers should be carefully studied.

The Transportation chief made the remark after Albay Representative Joey Salceda called on the government, the CAAP in particular, to compensate the thousands of passengers whose flights were grounded due to a power outage of the country’s air traffic management system. 

“Dapat pagaralan natin ang legality nito ano [It’s legality should be studied],” Bautista said.

“Unang una, ‘yung CAAP at saka DOTr wala kaming arrangement with the passengers, ‘di katulad ng airlines. Bumili sila ng ticket, merong obligation ang mga airlines na ilipad sila o i-refund ang kanilang pamasahe ‘pag hindi naka-refund,” he added.

(First of all, the CAAP and DOTr do not have an arrangement with passengers unlike with the airlines. When they buy a ticket, the airlines have an obligation to fly them or refund their fares if they are not able to fly them.)

Salceda cited the Joint Administrative Order (JAO) No. 1 s. 2012 of the Transportation and Trade Departments, which states that “[I]n case the air carrier cancels the flight because of force majeure, safety and/or security reasons, as certified by the CAAPs, a passenger shall have the right to be reimbursed for the full value of the fare.”

The lawmaker said CAAP should certify the event as a “safety reason for cancellation so that a reimbursement mechanism can be set into motion.”

Salceda, who chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means, then estimated a total of P660 million or P10,000 worth of financial remuneration for each of the 66,000 passengers affected, including the 56,000 stranded on Sunday.

While the government is not contractually obliged to compensate passengers, Bautista said that “morally” the DOTr and CAAP could be obligated.

“Pero ang legality nito dapat pag-aralan mabuti dahil, ako hindi naman abogado, pero sa pagkakaintindi ko walang contractual obligation between the passengers and DOTr or CAAP,” he said.

(But the legality of it should be carefully studied. I am not a lawyer, but as far as I understand there is no contractual obligation between passengers and DOTr or CAAP.)

“Dapat pag-aralan mabuti ng ating mga abogado para ano ba ‘yung dapat maging sagot ng gobyerno,” Bautista added.

(Our lawyers should study this thoroughly for us to know what the government can shoulder.)

On Sunday, hundreds of flights were cancelled stranding thousands of passengers as the CAAP’s Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) suffered a power system issue.

In particular, officials said that one of the uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) failed on Sunday morning, and troubleshooting activities had to be done.

Once the system was reconnected to the power supply, however, warnings were released at around lunch time due to over voltage as 380 volts were coming in instead of 220 volts. This then affected the very small aperture terminal (VSAT), which also had to be addressed. —KBK, GMA Integrated News