Bill seeking to reimburse passengers for unreasonable offloading pushed in Senate
The Senate is considering a bill to reimburse passengers who miss flights because of unfair immigration delays.
The Senate Bill No. 1657, or the “Passenger Protection and Reimbursement for Deferred Departures Act,” was filed in the upper house, aiming to protect passengers' rights against unreasonable denial of departure with clear, uniform, and transparent provisions on the reimbursement of such travel expenses, in accordance with existing laws and standards of fiscal accountability.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo, chairperson of the Committee on Public Services, filed the bill after he received several complaints from passengers who were offloaded without a valid reason.
"Karamihan sa mga nagreklamo ay nagsabing wala rin daw malinaw na paliwanag ang BI kung bakit sila na-offload," he said in a statement.
Tulfo said that while the Bureau of Immigration plays an important role in enforcing immigration laws and measures against human trafficking, passengers’ rights must also be protected, and no additional financial burden should be imposed on those with complete documents.
He stressed that reimbursement or rebooking is offered by only a few airlines and is neither mandated by the Civil Aeronautics Board.
In line with this, a special provision in the General Appropriations Act under the DOJ–Bureau of Immigration (Special Provision No. 1, Immigration Fees and Collections, Volume I-A) provides that the travel expenses of Filipino passengers whose departure was deferred or who were offloaded without a court order shall be charged to the Special Trust Fund Account.
Tulfo said that the BI will handle all reimbursement claims through their port management offices. These claims will then be forwarded to the Department of Justice- Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for final approval.
The measure does not apply to passengers who present fraudulent documents or are identified as possible victims of human trafficking, suspected illegal recruiters, or traffickers under Republic Act No. 9208.
