The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines relieved the manager of the Kalibo International Airport to give way to the investigation of a reported multi-million terminal fee scam, which the agency recently uncovered.
In a June 6 order CAAP Director General William Hotchkiss III, the 24th commanding general of the Philippine Air Force who has since retired from active service, ordered the relief, effective June 16, of Martin Tere as acting airport manager of the KIA and assigned Acting Area Center VII Manager Atty. Rafael Tatlonghari as his replacement in a concurrent capacity.
Hotchkiss designated Tere as airport manager of the Evelio B. Javier Airport in Antique.
Also given new posts were Aviation Services Safety Officer Engineer John William Fuerte, who was named acting assistant airport manager of the KIA, and Siquijor Airport Manager Mark Dimaoden as assistant area center VII manager in a concurrent capacity.
The reassignments, according to Hotchkiss, were undertaken for the exigency of public service and will all take effect on June 16.
The CAAP launched last month a probe on airport personnel allegedly involved in a multi-million scam where they issued used terminal fee tickets to passengers to enable them to pocket the cash.
The agency’s Security and Intelligence Service is still investigating the group’s possible involvement in the modus operandi of “recycling” terminal fee tickets for several years, taking away a substantial amount of earnings from the KIA.
The Authority terminated the personal service contracts of 11 job order personnel after the CSIS probe showed their involvement in the “collection of CAAP terminal fees for personal gain through the willful and unauthorized issuance of used CAAP terminal fee tickets at the KIA.”
A CAAP regular employee, who is also suspected of involvement in the scam, was preventively suspended for the duration of the CSIS investigation.
In January and February, they were found to have pocketed a total of P10 million terminal fee earnings of the KIA. The KIA terminal fee for a domestic flight costs P200 while a passenger is charged P700 for international travel.
The CAAP-CSIS is still conducting a thorough probe on those behind the scam for the possible filing of criminal charges against them.