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ON AIRPORT PARKING FEE CPA rejects DOLI’s plea
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Posted on Jul 22 1999
If you don’t want to pay any parking fee, just find someone else to drop you at the airport.
To prove that it is serious in raising the much needed revenue, the Commonwealth Ports Authority has rejected the request of the Department of Labor and Immigration to waive airport parking fees for immigration personnel assigned to airport operations.
In a letter to Antonio P. Sablan, acting director for Immigration Division, the ports authority said the $35 parking fee a year is not an exorbitant amount to pay. If you divide this into 26 payroll deductions, it only amounts to just under $1.35 every two weeks.
“Employees unwilling to shoulder the cost of parking should be encouraged to carpool, or find alternate means of transportation,” said Carlos H. Salas, executive director of CPA.
Only parking fees for CNMI government vehicles are waived because these are presumed to be parked at the Saipan International airport for official business.
Such request for a waiver for private vehicles would be unfair to other CPA tenants, whose employees are likewise required to park their vehicles, said Salas.
The ports authority started charging parking fee in July 1. CPA employees are manning the booth on three different shifts. Ports authority personnel are exempted from paying the parking lot fee as long as they have their official CPA badge in their possession.
Salas has warned CPA employees against abusing this privilege such as using their badge to bring out a friend’s car from the parking lot or lending their badge to another person.
Those who will park their car for less than an hour will still be charged $1.00. Parking for 24 hours will cost $10.00. Airport tenant employees will have a special rate of $35 per annum. Lost parking ticket will cost $10 per day.
All taxicab operators authorized by CPA management to operate at the airport shall pay a monthly taxicab permit fee of $25.00 per vehicle, payable upon issuance of the permit.
No vehicle or taxicab may operate at the airport without a valid taxicab decal issued by the ports authority on an annual basis.
Saipan Seaport will begin charging parking fee on October 1, 1999, according to its general manager Antonio Cabrera.
