The Bureau of Customs (BOC) again called the attention of Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific for their failure to settle the long-delayed overtime pay of BOC personnel at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) despite a 2012 Supreme Court (SC) ruling favoring the workers’ claims.
The Department of Finance (DOF) said Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, said that on behalf of MCIA customs personnel, he has written PAL and Cebu Pacific presidents Jaime Bautista and Lance Gokongwei, respectively, to remind them of their financial obligations under the SC ruling.
The ruling, which refers to the case of Office of the President vs. Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), orders the BOC to immediately implement Customs Administrative Order (CAO) 1-2005 prescribing an increase in the overtime pay of customs personnel serving international airline companies at the country’s airports.
The CAO took effect in 2005 while the SC decision became final and executory on January 11, 2012.
The CAO requires airlines that are BAR members to increase the overtime pay of customs personnel at the airports.
Faeldon said he has also written BAR chairman Jose Perez de Tagle to likewise call his attention for the need to see through the “speedy and full settlement” of the obligations of PAL and Cebu Pacific to MCIA customs personnel, some of whom have retired from the service.
“It is unfortunate that up to now, the customs personnel of Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) have yet to receive their overtime pay from two (2) major airlines, namely PAL and Cebu Pacific, which had the biggest number of international flights served during the period from the year 2005 to 2010,” Faeldon said in his October 19 letter to BAR.
“The delay in the execution of the judgment in favor of the BOC personnel within the five-year period from the date of its entry on 11 January 2012 or until 11 January 2017 (or about three months from now) may amount to denial of justice and further inconvenience on the part of the claimant,” Faeldon added.
The customs chief also informed BAR that his letter is, in effect, a follow-up to the earlier efforts of his predecessors, former commissioners Rufino Biazon and Alberto Lina, to assert the rightful claims of the customs workers with PAL and Cebu Pacific.
He recalled that Biazon issued the necessary directives and letter-appeals to implement the SC ruling, while Lina issued a written authority to the Customs Collector of the Subport of Mactan to negotiate an amicable settlement with the airline members of BAR to aid in the long-overdue implementation of the SC decision.
Faeldon said he, following Lina’s earlier efforts, also issued the same written authority to the Subport of Mactan.
In separate letters, the Customs chief told Gokongwei and Bautista, “We believe that it is fair, just and right to settle already with finality all the pending claims of the customs personnel which has become long overdue, thus, this appeal.”
The letter sent to PAL is dated October 19 while the one to Cebu Pac is dated October 14.
An earlier customs order, CAO 7-92, said BOC officers and employees at the airport were to receive P30 to P28 every hour in overtime pay, P50 travel allowance per way, and P50 allowance per meal.
CAO 1-2005 increased this hourly overtime pay of airport customs personnel as prescribed in CAO 7-92, raising it to a range of P66 to P83, and also including a P110 flat rate for travel allowance and P110 allowance per meal.
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