Davao City—Flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) remitted on March 7 to the Bangsamoro Treasury Office (BTO) its Domestic Passenger Service Charge (DPSC) amounting to P928,935, according to the Bangsamoro Information Office.
The Ministry of Finance, Budget and Management (MFBM) said the DPSC is known as the passenger terminal fee. The DPSC collects a terminal fee of P150 from tickets purchased for flights departing from the region’s airports. The fee is collected by respective air carriers.
“We, in the Philippine Airlines, are turning over this amount from the two tranches of remittance from January 1 to 31 of this year,” said PAL Sales Manager Delfin Tubera Jr.
“We are keeping our commitment as a partner of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in bringing progress by supporting and providing airport transport service.”
Tubera said PAL has been operating in the region for almost four decades now.
The Bangsamoro Region is comprised by the southwestern island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the central Mindanao provinces of Lanao del Sur, and recently divided provinces of Maguindanao. Its airports are located in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, Jolo, Sulu and Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, all considered principal domestic airports, and in Malabang, Lanao del Sur, which is classified as community airport.
PAL remitted the check to Minister Paisalin Tago of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC). MOTC Deputy Minister Roslaine Maniri, MFBM Deputy Minister Amilbahar Amilasan Jr. and Bangsamoro Treasurer Naila Dimaraw witnessed the handover of the cheque.
Under the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by MOTC and PAL on integrating tickets purchased for flights departing from airports managed by the MOTC’s Bangsamoro Airport Authority (BAA), it provides that PAL shall remit its DPSC collection to the BTO.
Meanwhile, the MFBM reported that MOTC is one of the ministries that collected a high revenue for the BARMM, reaching a total of P87.1 million remitted to the BTO for fiscal year 2022.
Dimaraw said the fees and charges from the different sectoral offices of MOTC, which include the Land Transportation Office, the Bangsamoro Maritime Industry Authority, the Bangsamoro Ports Management Authority, and the Bangsamoro Telecommunications Commission, “make us very optimistic about the future”.
“Congratulations on your hard work in reaching this milestone. I am hoping that with this additional collection of DPSC, your revenue will be higher from what you have achieved in 2022 to this year 2023,” Dimaraw said.
Amilasan expressed his appreciation to the PAL remittance saying, “Indeed this is a very significant activity, not just to us in attendance today, but for the whole Bangsamoro since this is the first remittance of our partner from the Philippine Airlines of the Domestic Service Passenger Service Charge.”
“I hope our partnership of rallying around our goal to promote better transportation facility to build better communication and commerce will reach the grassroot level, as we try to allow our areas in BARMM to produce whatever we do best in trade and commerce.”