Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) acting president Alex Cauguiran initiated earlier a probe on the allegations of Korean tourist Woo Seunkyung that personnel of the BoC had illegitimately demanded $137 from her and her husband upon their arrival at the airport here at about 1 a.m. last Feb. 13.
She insisted that the items she had bought from the duty-free shop at the Incheon airport in Korea on her way to Clark were not taxable.
But in a letter to Cauguiran, BoC Port of Clark chief Marites Martin said the $137 was indeed taxable, as she cited a law that requires taxes on items worth than P10,000 which are brought into the country by passengers.
Martin noted that the items, consisting of beauty products and a signature bag, cost about $677 which is more than P10,000 according to prevailing exchange rate at that time.
Kimberly Go, CIAC officer for operations, recalled that she had tried to negotiate for the payment of taxes after a brother of Woo’s husband and his Filipino wife, who were waiting outside the airport here, offered to pay the taxes in cash, but that a BoC personnel she identifi ed as Paul Dungca has instructed that the payment be made the following day.
Woo’s Facebook post was written in Korean whose English translation, she noted, was done via smart phone app translator.
She said she and her husband refused to pay and that BoC personnel then wrapped her items in tape and locked them in a room.
This, even as Martin denied Woo’s allegations of being mistreated by her personnel. In her letter to Cauguiran, Martin noted that “the passenger and her husband were the ones unruly and the examiner tried to appease them.”
Woo further claimed being given a runaround by BoC personnel here. She said they were told to come back for the seized items the following day but no one had entertained them when they did.
She also said BoC told them to come back at 10 p.m. the next day, four hours before their fl ight back to Korea last Feb. 15.
Woo also said the BoC personnel refused her suggestion to pay via credit card. Because time for departure was nearing and that she had already heard her name and that of her husband being called for the departing plane, they decided to run to the departure area and abandon their seized duty-free items.
Woo also claimed they lost a watch and an e-cigarette which they allegedly placed in a basket at an x-ray machine at the departure area.
But Cauguiran showed media yesterday a video footage of their departure showing that the couple had dropped the watch and that an OTS personnel saw this while another ran after the couple to return the item. The video also showed the husband returning to the area of the x-ray machine to get the watch.
