P200M reimbursement fund for offloaded airline passengers pushed

SEN. Francis Escudero yesterday said he is confident the bicameral conference committee which is tackling the proposed 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) will approve the inclusion of P200 million in the spending measure that will be used to reimburse the offloading of airline passengers without sufficient basis.

The amount was inserted by the Senate in its version of the GAB to allow the reimbursement of Filipino airline passengers who have been offloaded by immigration authorities in the guise of its crackdown against human trafficking.

Escudero stressed said the government should pay back the more than 32,000 affected passengers in 2022 who were not able to board their flights.

“Buo ang paniniwala ko na tatanggapin ito sa bicam dahil ang ginalaw ko lamang na pondo ay iyong 10 percent na nakokolekta ng Bureau of Immigration na hindi naman nila nagagamit at binabalik naman nila kada taon sa National Treasury (I am confident that this will be accepted by the bicam since this only covers 10 percent of the fees collected by the Bureau of Immigration that they returned to the National Treasury every year),” Escudero, who proposed the special provision in the 2024 budget of the Bureau of Immigration told radio DZBB.

Besides, Escudero pointed out that the proposed payment will not need additional budgetary requirement since the money will be charged against the BI’s earnings from collections.

He added that the overtime pay of immigration officers as well as their funding for IT modernization will not be affected by the provision of the reimbursement fund.

“Ika nga, imbes na bumalik sa Treasury, eh ‘di ibigay na lang natin sa mga na-offload ng walang sapat na basehan (Instead of the amount reverting to the National Treasury, why not use it to reimburse those who are offloaded from their flights without sufficient basis),” he said, adding that even those who were offloaded in the past can claim reimbursement due to its “retroactive provision.”

According to BI records, 32,404 Filipino passengers were not allowed to proceed with their flights last year, of which 472 were found to be victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment.

Escudero said it is up to the BI