Tugade orders advance remittance of P10-B dividends

FILE: Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, during a press conference at the KalayaanHall of Malacañan Palace on July 18, 2017. EXEQUIEL SUPERA/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade has ordered the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to remit in advance total amount PHP10 billion dividends to the Department of Finance (DOF) by Friday.

Tugade gave the order during his meeting with aviation sector officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) at the CAAP’s Civil Aviation Training Center where he led a strategic analysis session to map out continuing measures for the country’s aviation sector during the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.

The quarantine was earlier ordered enforced by President Rodrigo Duterte to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Tugade said the dividends to be remitted would help in funding the government’s campaign against the disease, as well as other government projects.

The PPA is set to remit PHP4 billion in dividends to the DOF.

The MIAA and the CAAP are remitting PHP3 billion each.

In a message on Wednesday, DOTr Assistant Secretary Goddes Hope Libiran said the dividends earned by the three agencies were usually remitted on May 15.

“Yung sa PPA (The dividends from PPA were earned), mainly from port operations. ‘Yung sa CAAP (CAAP’s dividends were earned), mainly from aeronautical charges—overfly fees, take-off, and landing, concessions, licenses,” Libiran said.

Tugade ordered the three agencies to directly issue the dividend checks to the DOF.

“We are now engaged in a war against Covid-19 and the government now needs to muster every financial support it can get to contain and eliminate this deadly disease.

We at the DOTr are throwing our support to this effort and to make sure that we as a country survive to see victory in this war against an invisible but very dangerous enemy,” Tugade said. (DOTr PR/ With Raymond Carl dela Cruz)