Proposed departure fee is added burden to OFWs — Binay

Vice President Jejomar Binay has asked the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to “reconsider" its plan to charge departing airline passengers an additional fee, to raise funds to cover the accumulated back wages and overtime pay of its employees, which have remained unpaid for years. In a letter to BOC Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, Binay, who is also the presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) concerns, described the additional US$1 to $2 fee as an “added burden" for OFWs. The proposed fee will come on top of the P750 terminal fee and P1,650 travel tax that passengers going abroad already pay, Binay said, adding that he was “bothered" by this since OFWs form the majority of departing airline passengers. “If your plan indeed covers OFWs, then I urge you to seriously reconsider," he said. Some 3,897 OFWs leave the country daily Binay said, citing records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). Binay stressed that the government’s policy, as enshrined in several laws, is to unburden OFWs from with additional costs. The revised Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, for example, exempts OFWs from paying documentary stamp and travel taxes, Binay said. The same law also provides for the non-increase of fees, he added. The law also prohibits the government from charging to OFWs the administrative costs of services rendered by the labor department and other government agencies. Sought for comment, a BOC staff said Alvarez has yet to receive Binay’s letter. Alvarez was also unavailable for comment as of posting time. New fee for BOC workers’ OT pay Early this month, the BOC disclosed its plan to charge departing passengers an additional fee of $1 to $2, based on a proposed memorandum of understanding with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Bureau of Immigration, and other related agencies. A Customs official, who requested anonymity, said the fees were supposed to be used to cover for the overtime pay of BOC employees, which he said had not been paid since July last year — as well as back wages from as early as 2005. The unpaid wages, which some 500 employees are due to receive, now amount to billions of pesos, the official added. The unpaid overtime work stemmed from a Court of Appeals decision in favor of international carriers, as represented by the Board of Airline Representatives, which declared the payment by airlines of overtime to BOC employees illegal, the official explained that For the affected employees, however, the issue is not where the government will get the funds to pay for their unpaid wages, but when they will finally receive payment, the official said. Apart from their daily, nine-hour work, BOC employees service at least 30 flights daily in scheduled and rotating overtime work, done before and after office hours. “How long are we going to wait to be paid our overtime work? Kawawa naman kami," the official said. Migrants’ group to oppose plan A migrants’ rights group also vowed to oppose the plan, saying the burden of paying for the BOC workers’ unpaid wages should not be passed on to OFWs. “The idea of charging OFWs anew for payment of BOC employees is ridiculous, illegal and anti-OFW. It goes against the mandate of the migrant workers law and the government’s policy on OFWs. The inability of the BOC to pay its own employees OT has nothing to do with us," said Migrante Middle East coordinator John Leonard Monterona. He also scored the government for treating OFWs as an “endless source of funds" by charging additional fees to make up for government agencies’ budget shortage. “We would like to tell the Aquino government to stop thinking that OFWs are like 'geese that lay golden eggs' every dollar we earn abroad is a product of our own hard labor," Monterona said. The BOC is perceived to be rife with corruption, and this is probably the cause of its inability to meet its target collection, the official said. - DM, GMANews.TV