Operators of Clark Int'l Airport must collect aviation security fees from passengers for turnover to Bureau of Treasury -- DOJ
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that private corporations operating the Clark International Airport should collect from passengers Aviation Security Fees (AVS) and remit the funds to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).
In a legal opinion dated Sept 25, 2023, DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla said: “We are of the opinion that the CIAC/LIPAD (Clark International Airport Corporation/Luzon International Premier Airport Development) must collect and remit the amount of P60 and P15 for every departing international and domestic passenger, pursuant to Section1 and 2 of E.O. (Executive Order) No. 30, s. 1998, respectively.”
The legal opinion was sent to then Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary Mao R. Aplasca, the then administrator of the Office of Transportation Security (OTS), in response to the query of former DOTr Undersecretary Raul L. Del Rosario. The OTS is previously known as the National Committee on Anti-Hijacking (NACAH).
The DOTr sought the legal opinion to determine if LIPAD should be collecting the ASF as stated under EO No. 30 and the Letters of Instruction (LOI) Nos. 414 and 414-A, series of 1976.
“A review of LOI Nos. 414 and 414-A as well as other related issuances, readily shows that so long as airports, regardless of whether under the supervision of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ (CAPP) or not, are collecting ASF, they are mandated to remit the same to the BTr,” Remulla said.
Under LOI Nos. 414 and 414-A, series of 1976, Remulla explained “the purpose for the collection of ASF is to subsidize the National Committee on Anti-Hijacking (NACAH), a committee created by virtue of LOI No. 399, which was signed two (2) months prior to LOIs Nos. 414 and 414-A.”
Remulla said the OTS is “tasked with formulating plans for, coordinating, integrating, directing, controlling and supervising all measures aimed at preventing/suppressing any and all forms of hijacking; ensuring the safe and continuous operation of civil aviation; and handling all incidents of hijacking to include immediate and follow-up actions to be taken to the termination or resolution thereof.”
“In short, it was created to be responsible for the security of the transportation systems in the country, including civil aviation,” he also said in the legal opinion.