Archival: Impose terminal fee increase by installment

Cebu City councilor Nestor Archeval (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Should airport authorities decide to approve the proposal to increase passenger terminal fees, it should be implemented by installment rather than impose it outright, a local legislator said.

Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival also called on the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) to open its previous books of accounts so it can provide the basis and justify why they need to increase the terminal fees.

Archival made the proposals in a privilege speech in yesterday’s Cebu City Council session.

The council will schedule an Oct. 29 public hearing on the issue. “We need to be enlightened and the public has to be enlightened on the airport terminal fee issue,” Councilor Gerardo Carillo said.

Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias also moved for the council to adopt Archival’s speech as their official stand on the proposed terminal fee increase.

Archival told the council that he attended the public hearing last Tuesday and was told that the increase was needed to cover MCIA’s revenue losses.

Necessary

He said while the airport expansion project is laudable, he wanted to be convinced that the planned increase in terminal fees was necessary.

The councilor said the airport earned only half a billion pesos in revenue instead of the P1.5 billion target.

“If the airport authority proceeds with these rate increases, we, the passengers from Cebu will now be paying terminal fees higher than those in Manila – NAIA still maintains their terminal fees at P200 for the domestic passengers and P500 for international passengers,” he said.

“Are the increases necessary? And will it serve the public? Where do the rate increases go?” Archival said.

The councilor wants MCIAA to explain why a fee increase will have to be implemented this early when the expansion project awarded to GMR-Megawide has not even started yet.

Archival is also proposing the use of the P14.4 billion deposit which GMR paid for the construction of a second runway and the rehabilitation of the existing runway instead of just leaving the money deposited in the bank.

“The Cebu Airport Authority says it does not know yet whether this money will be given to Cebu or the national government,” he said.

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