In January this year, our Facebook rant about the overpriced airport taxicabswent viral, shared more than 50,000 times. It also reaped more than 12,000 comments. We guess our countrymen were that fed up with the situation. In fact, even a senator took notice and vowed to take a look into the matter. Well, it looks like change has indeed come. According to Philippine Star, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport will start allowing regular taxicabs to pick up arriving passengers from its four terminals beginning today, July 18. The pick-up points for these non-airport cabs, said the report, are the following: * NAIA Terminal 1 - secondary roadway of main arrival area; * NAIA Terminal 2 - secondary roadway, from Bay 22; * NAIA Terminal 3 - third roadway of arrival area, from Bay 6; and * NAIA Terminal 4 - exit point Manila International Airport Authority general manager Ed Monreal was quoted as saying that passengers will be provided with a "dispatch slip" indicating the name of the cab driver, the cab's plate number, and the name of the cab's operator, to ensure their safety. Monreal likewise reportedly declared that complaints lodged by passengers "will be resolved within 72 hours." While this is obviously good news, we can't help but also worry about criminals taking advantage of the situation--especially since arriving airport passengers are known to carry valuables with them. Here's hoping the airport authorities can do a fine job of screening the cabs to be allowed on their premises. Report: Starting today, July 18, regular taxicabs will be allowed at NAIA terminals
They have been allowing criminals to drive up to the airport in cars and act like they are legitimate taxi drivers and charge absolutely ridiculous prices for the privilege to ride in their death trap on wheels for at least 11 years (first time I flew into Manila). The "criminals" link speaks of 3 taxi cab robberies committed by the same person over a course of 3 months...the odds of getting robbed by a taxi driver in Manila are not really that high considering extremely large number of rides that are given per day (I couldn't even make a guess as to how many there could be in a day).
