Curb enthusiasm, Naia workers told

NO GREETINGS, no hints for presents.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) senior assistant general manager Vicente Guerzon Jr. has issued a “verbal guidance” to airport frontliners—personnel in direct contact with passengers—to refrain from extending Christmas greetings at the arrival and departure terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

Guerzon said the guidance, issued during the MIAA security council meeting last week, complements the “no-gift” policy the MIAA adopted last year. Under the policy, which applies to all civil servants, airport workers are forbidden from soliciting or receiving cash and items from passengers.

“If guests greet them first, they can return the greeting ‘same to you,’ and reply with a smile,” the MIAA official told the Inquirer.

In the past, some passengers may have mistaken the greeting for a not-so-subtle request for presents.

A janitor assigned at Naia Terminal 1 said they had no problem with the policy although they sometimes had to explain it to passengers.

“It is better this way so we would not be accused of asking for gifts,” he told the Inquirer, saying it was better to appear snobbish than be looked down on by passengers who suspect them of soliciting presents if they got too much into the Christmas spirit. Jeannette I. Andrade