 |
| Several groups have thrown a lifteline to OFWs who failed to fly home due to Peya's fault |
By The SUN staff
The
Philippine government has joined the last-minute dash to bring home overseas
Filipino workers who were unable to board their flights a few days before
Christmas because their booking agent, Peya Travel, failed to get their tickets
issued, despite charging them the full fare.
Foreign
Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told media outlets in the Philippines earlier
today that the government would pay for the air fare because OFWs “have a very special
place in President (Rodrigo) Duterte’s hear.”
Cayetano
said the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and
Employment would split the cost of the air tickets of affected OFWs.
He
was also reported as saying that Defense Secretary
Delfin Lorenzana had placed the Philippine Air Force on standby in case it
needed to fly the workers out of Hong Kong.
The acting head of Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong, Roderico
Atienza, confirmed to The SUN that they had received instructions about the plan to get the affected OFWs home free of charge.
“There is negotiation going on to bring them home,” Atienza said. “The
government is footing the bill.”
He said the talks are between the government and Philippine
Airlines, which is being asked if it could fly the passengers first, then bill
the government later. As of this writing, however, no commitment has yet been secured
from PAL.
Atienza was, however, quick to quell reports that a military
aircraft, particularly a C130, would be sent to Hong Kong to ferry the
distressed passengers.
“It’s not that easy to send a military aircraft to a foreign
territory,” said Atienza. “We will need Beijing’s approval for it.”
He said getting the military involved was definitely not part of
the instructions given them by the head office in Manila.
Getting PAL to fly home more stranded OFWs could, however, prove
to be a problem. A staff member of the airline’s Hong Kong office said all the
additional seats offered by PAL for its flights to Manila for Dec. 22 and 23
have been snapped up.
A total of about 200 seats were freed up for the affected
passengers on PAL’s last flights out of Hong Kong for the two days, after the airline
decided to send bigger aircraft to Hong Kong. These were sold for $3,030 each,
roundtrip, to people who applied for them directly with PAL. Return ticket
prices for these two dates were selling for no less than $5,000 before the Peya
fiasco erupted.
Cathay Pacific Airways, which earlier announced the same strategy of
using bigger aircraft for its flights to Manila on these two days and offered a
“distress fare” of just $1,300 return to affected passenger, appears to have filled
all available slots immediately.
A latecomer in the move to get the stranded OFWs home is Cebu
Pacific Airways, which offered 50 free air tickets yesterday to the affected
passengers on three Hong Kong to Manila flights: On Dec 25 at 7:30pm, Dec. 30
at 3:45pm, and Jan. 8 at 3:45pm.
The airline has asked the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration
to process the applications for the free air tickets from the affected passengers.
As of 3pm today, 38 of the available tickets have already been taken, said
Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre.
Labatt dela Torre also said OWWA has started accepting applications
for the free PAL flights that might be arranged by the government. As of the
close of office hours today, only 10 OFWs had stepped forward to take advantage
of the promised free tickets.
Meanwhile, Atienza clarified that the Philippine Consulate has no legal
personality to file a complaint with the police against Peya Travel amid reports Secretary Cayetano had instr\ucted them to charge the agency of fraud.
He said
the most that the Consulate can do is to ask those victimized in the ticketing
mess to fill up a form detailing their complaints against the agency, then refer these to the police.
However, he said the Consulate did send a letter early yesterday
to the Commissioner of Police, asking for an investigation into the complaints
against Peya, but has yet to get a reply.
