EDITORIAL - Predators at the NAIA

Won’t scandals ever end at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport? In the latest incident, a cabbie was recorded on video overcharging a passenger picked up at the NAIA. The cabbie has lost his driver’s license, and his livelihood. The owner of his vehicle, Taxi Hub, was found to be operating with expired permits.

The heavier punishment, however, should go to those who reportedly prompted the cabbie – and if he’s telling the truth, several other taxi drivers as well – to gouge passengers.

The cabbie told the Department of Transportation that several members of the NAIA police demanded a 40-percent cut from him and other taxi drivers for allowing them to operate at the airport. The cabbie was recorded charging a passenger P1,200 for a ride between Terminals 2 and 3 – a drive of just five kilometers.

DOTr officials have fired five airport police personnel believed to be involved in the extortion racket. But it hardly diminishes the public dismay over this scandal. Security personnel prey on underprivileged taxi drivers, who in turn prey on passengers arriving at the country’s main gateway.

If the passengers are foreign visitors who later find out that they are victims of fare gouging, it would be another blackeye not only for the NAIA but for the entire country.

Even before this incident, the country had already been struggling to catch up with its neighbors in attracting business and leisure travelers. The Philippines has been trailing the other original founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in terms of tourism, and is eating the dust even of ASEAN latecomer Vietnam.

This year, violent attacks targeting foreign visitors compounded the country’s tourism woes. Last March, a Slovak tourist was murdered in Boracay, one of the country’s top travel destinations.

In May, two South Korean tourists strolling in Bonifacio Global City were robbed at gunpoint by motorcycle-riding crooks. The reaction of the Philippine National Police chief at the time was just as appalling: the PNP, he explained, has limited presence in BGC because it is private property and the owner bears much of the responsibility for securing the area.

Even before the case of the taxi fare overcharging has been fully resolved, the DOTr has also found that certain taxi operators and drivers servicing the NAIA are circulating fraudulent fares online. The fare guides, which have not been cleared with the DOTr, are reportedly used at airport terminals.

Such incidents can give the impression that this is a nation of cheaters and criminals preying on foreign visitors. The nation prides itself in its hospitality. These crooks at the NAIA are a national disgrace.