Mystery of the missing pushcarts

Where are the airport pushcarts?

Hundreds of passengers on three separate flights of Philippine Airlines (PAL), which arrived Wednesday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal II (NAIA-2), suffered great discomfort and inconvenience after they couldn’t find a single pushcart to carry their luggage.

The absence of pushcarts for passengers on flights from Inchon and Seoul in South Korea and Hong Kong created a pitiful sight as elderly passengers had difficulty dragging their luggage and boxes out of the terminal from the carousels.

Many passengers had to make several trips to and from the carousel.

The pushcarts were not in their usual racks after they were pulled out of the terminal reportedly on orders of an official of the porterage service concessionaire at the NAIA. The official allegedly ordered the pullout of the pushcarts after his men were banned from entering the Customs area.

Customs officers earlier complained that porters usually hang around the carousel and at the Customs area, creating a "market scene." They claimed that porters add to the confusion when there is a big number of arriving passengers as they reportedly intercede for passengers for Customs clearance.

To get even with Customs for the order that banned his men, the porterage service official allegedly pulled out all the pushcarts at the terminal, not realizing the inconvenience it would bring to arriving passengers.

There is a standing memorandum circular stating that porters are not allowed in the Customs area, much more near the carousels. They are only allowed to retrieve pushcarts.

Customs officials said that they have to strictly implement the memorandum circular to bring order in their assigned areas.