NAIA and the Merry X-mas
By jeanneyvonne
@jeanneyvonne (5500)
Philippines
December 8, 2010 1:24pm CST
In the recent years, NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) has a policy that forbids its manpower to greet 'Merry Christmas' to people arriving in the country. The policy states that greeting an arrival 'Merry Christmas' might give the impression that the greeter wants to solicit extra cash. Anyone caught breaking the policy ,of course, will be subject to punishment. In my opinion, there's no harm in greeting someone "Merry Christmas' when you arrive. Besides, it shows that the people working in the airport are too underpaid or receive little salary (might be no bonus at all) to resort to red tape at an international airport. NAIA is known to be a hospitable airport, why should a greeting cause red tape at all? What do you think?
3 responses
@angeline1 (144)
•
9 Dec 10
The workers in NAIA should be do their job.I know that they are underpaid.No under the table.They should greet Merry Xmas to the people arriving in the country.
@TheAdvocate (2392)
• Philippines
9 Dec 10
I don't understand - why would it cause red tape?
The Christmas greeting may sound harmless, but years of experience has shown that this is one of the ways to extort money from people. This is usually aimed at OFWs who arrive during Christmas with balikbayan boxes. Think of the poor Filipino who worked hard so that he can bring something home this christmas only to be extorted at the airport. OFWs do not know what the rules on tax are and as a result, are always fearful that they might have violated something. So to stop creative taxing, it is just right to prohibit this well-known extortion greeting. A smile will do.
