Miriam Santiago sues airline for P1.6M

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed a P1.6-million damage suit against an international airline firm for supposedly causing her inconvenience due to a delayed flight two years ago. Santiago filed the complaint against American Airlines before the sala of Presiding Judge Jose Paneda of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 220 for its alleged failure to transport her from New York to Los Angeles on schedule in 2008. In her complaint, she asked the court to order American Airlines and its general sales agent Airesources Inc. to pay her one million pesos in moral damages; P500,000 in exemplary damages and P100,000 for her attorney’s fees and cost of the suit. She also wants the two firms to pay her US$250.00 or about P11,500 in actual damages, which include the expenses she incurred while she was stranded in LA because of the delayed flight. She said she is only seeking the damages now because negotiations between her and the two firms' deteriorated. She said the companies insisted that they only pay the actual expenses which she said was "a virtual insult" because she experienced moral and physical trauma during the ordeal. In June 2008, Santiago went to New York as part of her year-long campaign in her bid for the nomination as judge for the International Court of Justice. The campaign was arranged by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The complaint said that on June 27, 2008, the senator went to the JFK International Airport in New York to board flight AA181 bound for LA. From there, she would board a Philippine Airlines flight PR103 bound for Manila. Her flight was supposed to depart New York at 4:55 p.m. but the airline suddenly announced that it would be delayed by one hour. Worried that the delay might cause the senator to miss her flight back to Manila, her assistant Mary Grace Katigbak requested the desk clerks of American Airlines to transfer her to another flight, even telling them that Santiago was a senator who had several important appointments. But Santiago said that the airline company's personnel told them – in a rude manner – that all the other flights were full. After five hours, the airline announced that a substitute plane would finally replace the delayed flight. The senator said the five-hour wait in the pre-departure area caused her to catch a cold and even develop a fever. She said Katigbak went to get help from an officer of the Philippine Permanent Mission to New York but was supposedly prevented from entering the terminal building. When she finally arrived in LA, her flight to Manila had already left. She said she was forced to check into the Hilton Woodland Hills at her own expense. GMANews.TV tried contacting the defendant's local counsel Rodrigo Quimbo but he was unavailable for comment. — LBG, GMANews.TV