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John Unson - Philstar.com
February 27, 2026 | 6:13pm
Personnel of the Aviation Security Unit-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are guarding against abusive fare charges by drivers of passenger vehicles, from passengers of planes that land at the Cotabato Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, enroute to towns in the province and in barangays in nearby Cotabato City, seat of the Bangsamoro autonomous government.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two police units are addressing the now controversial overcharging of fares by drivers of land vehicles, plying through overland routes in Central Mindanao, from passengers of planes that land at the Cotabato Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte.
Personnel of the Cotabato Airport Police Station of the Aviation Security Unit-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and counterparts in the Highway Patrol Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are cooperating in addressing the issue via dialogues with public land transportation owners and drivers and random checkpoint operations.
Operatives from the AVSEU-BAR and the HPG-BAR are together guarding the main route connecting the Cotabato Airport in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat to other towns in Maguindanao del Norte and to Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, about eight kilometers away.
Police Lt. Norelyn Ardina of the Cotabato Airport Police Station said on Friday that their efforts to stop for good the exorbitant fare charges by drivers of passenger vehicles from commuters from the airport is premised on complaints from the local communities.
“We are addressing the problem along with our counterparts in other police units," Ardina said.
Netizens have ranted on Facebook about drivers of public vehicles charging plane passengers arriving at the airport from between P300 to P400, as fare from there to interior areas in nearby Cotabato City, and from P700 up to P1,000 for those bound for nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte, one of the five provinces in BARMM.
BARMM’s chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, told reporters in Friday that he will mobilize their regional government’s Bangsamoro Land Transportation Office and the Bangsamoro Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to help resolve such abuses by owners and drivers of public transportations operating in highways that connect to the Cotabato Airport.
“We have to censure, penalize them to the fullest extent of law once proven to have done so,” Macacua said.
