P143M allocated for Air Passenger Bill of Rights under 2023 budget

The government has allocated P143 million in the 2023 national budget for the implementation of the administrative order on Air Passengers' Bill of Rights (APBR), which compensates passengers in case of delayed or cancelled flights.

The implementation of APBR is provided under Joint Administrative Order (JAO) No. 1 issued in 2012 by then-Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The said DOTC-DTI JAO states that “In case the air carrier cancels the flight because of force majeure, safety and/or security reasons, as certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, a passenger will have the right to be reimbursed for the full value of the fare.”

The P143-million amount, however, is way lower than the P660 million compensation pitched by Albay Representative Joey Salceda for the estimated 66,000 passengers affected by air traffic system glitch that paralyzed the operations of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on New Year's Day.

Salceda, who chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means, estimated a P10,000 compensation per passenger who was affected by the glitch.

The P143-million budget for the APBR implementation is earmarked under the Civil Aviation Board (CAB), a government agency under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

The amount also accounts for more than half of the total CAB budget for 2023, which is at P234.4 million.

The remainder of the CAB budget is allocated to the air transport and development program (P38.2 million) and general administration and support (P49.1 million).

Of the CAB’s P38.2 million 2023 budget for air transport and development program, P17.5 million will go to air transport policy and formulation and implementation, P10.6 million for air transport regulatory services and P10 million for other organizational and system improvement.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB earlier in the day, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the agency 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.

According to Bautista, the legality of such compensation from DOTr and CAAP should be looked into first.

"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 said. 

(First of all, the CAAP and the 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 them if they are not able to fly them.)

The CAAP already said it is willing to face external investigations over the New Year's Day fiasco.

"Our internal investigation is ongoing, and we will try to complete it as soon as possible. If there will be an external investigation, we will welcome it,” CAAP Deputy Director General for Operations Edgardo Diaz said on CNN Philippines. —KBK, GMA Integrated News