Comment thread for Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Philippines

I had the most tragic encounter w/ the immigration in this airport. It is, for me, the home of the most cruel people in the Philippines. I was offloaded too for reasons that not even I, can come up with. It seems to me that they have this anger w/ our own country, or better yet, their fellow citizens for having the right and the resources to go out of this country. I have filed a complaint, of which i still have not heard any response from the DMIA Operations Manager, Mr. Rico Lopez. He assured me, just like what he probably did to the rest of the other complainants that I would hear from him, as well as, what actions the airport would take w/ the complaint.

I would write here, a pretty much, narrative of what happened, which I copied from the complaint I passed to the Airport Operations Manager. Here goes...

I would like some clarifications regarding the process executed by the immigration officers when assessing a guest/passenger if they are qualified to leave the country. I believe that the immigration officers have been very unprofessional in performing their duties. It maybe a question of competency. Another thing I'd like to understand is, what were their basis for holding a guest/passenger for a secondary inspection, which is what happened to me and my companion. (I'd really like to understand what were their basis for a secondary inspection, in my case. I'll relate completely what happened, because I really seek for some resolution, if not, compensation.)

My companion and I arrived at the DMIA at 6:12pm. We were received at the check-in counter at the same time. According to the Terms and Conditions of the airline where we purchase our tickets and made arrangements for our flight, a passenger should show up at the check-in counters at least 45mins before his/her scheduled departure time. At 6:20pm, we got in line at the immigration for our pre-departure interview. I will describe the immigration counter as "capable of creating confusion", at that time. The counter is composed of not only two, but six individuals, at the same time. I understand that 1 station can accommodate two passengers; yet from my observation, it was very hard to identify which among them is really in-charge of performing the interview. The person (officer) who was asking me questions, is actually being dictated by another officer regarding what questions to ask. One question, of which I remember, was asked twice, of which I answered twice as well. The interviewer doesn't seem to know what to say, and doesn't really listen to me as I answered his questions; because if he had, he wouldn't be asking the same question twice. Another officer signalled the interviewer, that my companion and I are due for secondary inspection. We passively responded to the informations they want to clarify about our trip. At that time, at exactly 6:30pm, I reminded the immigration officer that the boarding gate will close 15mins prior to departure. The officer doesn't seem to have heard me, because he made no response. So, I repeated myself to the officer, I received no response again. After which during the interview, we heard our flight being called out by the paging attendant. I then called the attention of another officer, that the gate has opened and that we are supposed to be boarding by that time. He dismissed me and ordered me to stay put. After the interview and another delay w/ a female officer, we were given the stamp as an approval that we can finally leave the country for our vacation. Only for us to find out that the plane we were to board at has already left. This is where the irony comes in: why do they have to make such a delay to inspect us, only to approve us in the end? It maybe a part of their procedure and can easily be justified by them; yet, the delay seemed intentional, so as we would miss our flight.

We are serious about seeking resolution, clarification, and compensation about this inconvenience. We really want to understand why, we were given this INCONVENIENCE.

(And then I wrote at the back of my complaint...) Thanx to Mr. Rico Lopez for giving us the opportunity to express our concern, and also for giving us an assurance that appropriate actions will be made for the inconvenience we had at the immigration of DMIA. (...because I really thought and I'm really hoping that he would do something about it or that he would do his job, but all he did was to pacify my frustration at that time.)

I experienced the same just this morning. I felt like they delayed us intentionally because they even lost my boarding pass while waiting to be interviewed for which we do not know why, hence, the delay. Finally he came back to give me the form to be filled up and he said he got a new boarding pass for me ( like I have to thank him for that, duh..! ) . I told that same officer twice that we are going to be late on our flight but he just said wait for your turn " pakihintay lang po,kayo na ang susunod ". They didn't care at all. We patiently waited for our turn. E nauna pa kame s ibang na-intrvw na. They don't have a system. They only have one interviewer, who asks the same question over and over. And nung malaman nila na naiwan kame, wala silang pakialam.

And also be careful when paying Travel Tax, there was one personnel who came up to us and assisted us in paying our travel tax. He asked us to pay exact amount. I did not suspect anything, even if he told me that while waiting, one of us can go and pay the terminal fee already, and so I went and left my sis and my friend. After which, I asked my sis and my friend for the receipt, but they said he didn't issue a receipt. I got suspicious when they asked us to refund the fees as a result of not boarding the plane. The man who took our travel tax fee gave us the refund without going back to the queu or filling up a form. He just handed over the money and said " oh eto na ung pera , para di na kyo pumila ". That is why he didn't issue a receipt coz he planned on keeping the money to himself. Obviously, a corrupt employee.. tsk.tsk.tsk.