Philippine Airlines (PAL) has suspended a member of its ground crew for allegedly trying to extort money from an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) with overweight baggage.
In a now viral social media post, Rinkashifu Miyakakishi Reyes claimed the female agent manning PAL’s check-in counter told her to send P5,000 to the agent’s personal bank account as payment for excess weight of her check-in luggage.
Reyes said the PAL agent initially assessed the payment for her overweight luggage at P11,000 but the amount was eventually brought down.
The passenger said the agent told her to send the P5,000 payment to the latter’s GCash or online banking account, with details written on tissue paper.
The flag carrier owned by bilyonaryo Lucio Tan said an investigation is underway.
“For now, the concerned check-in agent has been placed on preventive suspension, and we are working with Macro Asia (the agent’s employer and our service provider at NAIA Terminal 2) to enforce PAL’s strict policies against any form of fraud or irregularities, and to prevent any recurrence,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a statement.
Reyes said the agent’s instructions made her uncomfortable so she delayed sending the payment until the agent went after her before boarding the plane.
The passenger claimed the agent even tried to scare her by saying she would be thrown out of the plane for failure to send the payment.