LAST March 28, my niece, her hubby and five-month-old baby left via NAIA Terminal 1 aboard a Jetstar flight bound for Narita, Japan.
When the boarding announcement was made at 12 a.m. flight, the baby was already fast asleep.
Their assigned gate for boarding was Gate 16, where passengers have to go down using the stairs. Since their sleeping baby was in a stroller, they opted to use the elevator at the departure. They were stopped by a lady guard, who also directed them to advise their airline so that someone from the airline could fetch them from the departure area and bring them to Gate 16, which is at the arrival area.
My niece went down the boarding gate but by then, her husband called her up saying the lady guard at the departure area had already allowed him and the baby to board the elevator. Why the lady guard disallowed the use of the elevator for the passengers was too puzzling.
The couple could have just carried their baby and taken the stairs down but they were careful to rouse the baby from his sleep because he would surely cry loud and long which is the scenario each time his sleep is disrupted. This would have inconvenienced the other passengers.
I helped my nephew-in-law by taking care of the stroller while he carried all their hand-carry. My niece left all her stuff thinking she would be accompanied by an airline guy to the departure to join her husband and baby in going to the boarding gate.
To my shock and dismay, a staff of the arrival interline named Merelle Joy Arenga, told me that the media is not allowed in the boarding gate area and stressed that to be allowed there, the media in the airport should be able to show a ‘kasulatan’ or order stating that we can go to that area.
Our IDs, duly issued by the management of the Manila International Airport Authority and signed by its general manager Cesar Chiong himself, are green access ones, which also states that we are allowed access to Terminals 1,2,3 and 4.
Given the number of airport GMs we have covered for decades, it was the first time I encountered someone demanding a document, apart from the ID, to prove that we could set foot in the boarding area.
I asked Arenga to show me written proof that there is an instruction that we need to present document before we are allowed in the boarding area. She said it was an order from the management.
When I asked her if she could stand by what she said, that the airport management issued such an order, she began pointing to her alleged supervisor on the radio as the one who told her to demand such from the media.
When I inquired who she was talking to over her radio, Arenga pretended not to hear, so I had to ask again. She curtly answered ‘Eron’. I asked for the surname but said she does not know since they only address themselves by their first name.
She then left saying she would get the surname of her supervisor, all the while holding the radio, which she could have just used to ask.
It is just absurd for any employee not to know the surname of his direct superior, especially so if you talk to him on the radio every day.
When she passed by the area again after a long while, I asked her again about her supervisor’s last name. Again, she curtly replied, ‘Lakay’. She even said she would tell the APD (airport police department) about the matter. Scary much?!?
Noticeably, no one from the airline stood up for Arenga, making it clear that she was making her own rules at that time. Not even the supervisor whom she claims ordered her to demand a document from us went to the area to back her up.
This is one of the problems that creates headaches for GM Chiong. There are people in the airport who would conveniently drop the name of the management so they could go power-tripping.
Once it becomes apparent to the ‘victim’ that the NAIA management would learn that it is unjustly being used, the power-tripper would point to someone else.
The problem is, once anyone from the airport says ‘utos sa taas,’ one would automatically blame the office of GM Chiong.
Fortunately, in the case at hand, I for one, and I guess my colleagues who are also members of the in-house media, know for a fact that no such regulation of us having to produce documents to prove the access on our IDs, exists.
The likes of Arenga are the kind of people in the airport who gives the MIAA, even Jetstar and the office of GM Chiong a bad name. What if I didn’t know the truth?
Can you imagine if all IDs issued in the airport would have to have accompanying documents to prove the access stated in the IDs? The story concocted by Arenga is one for the books.
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