Cebu Pacific Replies

Here is the response from the Cebu Pacific Guest Services Head Mr. Ivan Gaw from the letter sent by Sen. Mar Roxas through Blogger Kevin Ray:

Dear Mr Kevin Ray Chua,

Greetings from Cebu Pacific!

Ms Rosita Menchaca, VP of Passenger Service of Cebu Pacific Air, endorsed to me the letter form Atty Blas James Viterbo of the office of our good Senator Mr. Mar Roxas, which was sent to her last 06Jan09 pertaining to the 10 deaf passengers which were bumped off for their Caticlan-Manila route.

Before, Cebu Pacific only accepts 2 unescorted passengers that requires special handling per flight. Passengers that required special handling includes expectant mothers, people with disabilities, medical cases, unaccompanied minor and the likes that whose physical, medical, or mental condition requires individual attention and/or equivalent not normally extended to other passengers during or when embarking, in-flight, in emergency evacuation, and ground handling at the airports.

During that time, the 10 deaf passengers including 1 companion were bumped off because of this ruling which we practiced before. We follow that previous procedure primarily because of the safety of all of our passengers including theirs which is our airline’s top priority.

This incident had been an eye opener also for our company. With this incident, we revised our procedures for carriage of Deaf passengers and still not compromising safety. Since July 2008, Cebu Pacific accepts unlimited number of unescorted Deaf/ Mute guests in all of our aircrafts provided that they shall be properly briefed by our Cabin Attendants about safety, the use of seatbelt, oxygen mask, life vest, route to the nearest exit, etc. The only condition is that they must not be seated at any emergency exit rows.

I am seeking for your help if it is possible for you to forward to me the record locator of their booking. All the tickets of the affected guests were refunded but applicable penalties were collected. Actually, Sir Lance (Gokongwei) already gave an approval for full refund of their tickets problem was the system limitation of our Revenue Accounting when they processed the said refund. They erroneously collected the penalties. If you can forward to me their record locator or ticket numbers, we can dig the files and return to them the penalties collected.

I’m also happy to inform you that we are coordinating with the group of Sir Nonoy Concha and party for an awareness seminar about proper handling of passengers with disabilities. We are targeting mid-February. We also would want to include our learning’s from this awareness seminar to the front line training program. I am constantly in loop with them.

Rest assured that it’s not the intention of Cebu Pacific to discriminate anybody. We value all of our guest irregardless of gender, status, and condition.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Ivan Gaw
Guest Services
Cebu Pacific Airlines

To Cebu Pacific, thank you very much for your speedy reply (almost two weeks) and for making some policy changes. Let’s hope that no more incidents like the previous ones will ever happen again. To Kevin Ray, thank you for helping us. Things like this must be recognized. 🙂

Ika nga ni Sir Lauro Purcil, ang aking idol at pinagpipitaganan kong PWD power advocate,

We all are citizens, consumers and service-subjects, and in this context we hope that Cebu Pacific would see the logic and the positive effects of our becoming a vigilant sector. We shall be meticulous (napakakulit) and will for duty and responsibility sake strictly demand global quality public services from government and the business sectors. No less than but quality, prompt, honest and sincere services we must demand. All services now are right
based in terms of quality standard.

Mabuhay ang sektor ng May Kapansanan! 🙂