NCMF Secretary Sabuddin N. Abdurahim orders refund of Php37 million (Php7,500 for each Hajj 2o24 pilgrim) owing to settlement of Camp Fee differential.
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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech & Digital News
QUEZON CITY (SDN) — You can only imagine the relief that Sheikh Yunos Ambola felt when, unexpectedly, he received the Hajj visas, passports, and identification cards (IDs) for his 20 pilgrims before their May 23 flight to Saudi Arabia.
The first to receive the Hajj 2024 documents, Ambola, a “sheikh” (meaning, a pilgrims’ leader) from the Lanao provinces, and his pilgrims are part of the more than 4,000 Filipinos who are set to perform the pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, for Hajj 2024.
If memory serves right, that was never, ever done before by past heads of the then, now defunct, Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA), and its replacement, today’s National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).
Well, that’s until a former sheikh himself, now NCMF Secretary/CEO Sabuddin N. Abdurahim came along to head the perennially controversial Commission, especially concerning the pilgrimage.
In a simple handover ceremony at the NCMF Center Office in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Abdurahim, who assumed office on April 1 this year (he was appointment by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.), handed over to Ambola the visas, passports, and IDs on May 20.
In the past, OMA and NCMF, before the administration of Abdurahim, pilgrims departing for the annual pilgrimage suffered heavy stress and psychologically tortured minds because, even though they were already at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal I on the day of their flight, they had no idea if their passports with visas and plane tickets would ever come on time.
In some instances, many pilgrims were left crying because they were left behind by their flights as their passports with visa and airline tickets never arrived on time.
Now, if today, the new NCMF secretary is able to do this exemplary service to Filipino pilgrims, why past OMA/NCMF heads were not able to do it? Maybe conditions were different then. Or, concerned accredited travel agencies at that time may also be partly to blame for passport-visa-plane tickets fiascos in the past. Thus, their accreditation must not be renewed.
Information from the Commission and social media post from Dr. Dimapuno Alonto Datu-Ramos, Jr., regional director of the NCMF-National Capital Region (NCR), showed the distribution was done on May 20, led by Abdurahim himself.
He was assisted in the task by deservingly designated Bureau of Pilgrimage and Endowment (NCMF-BPE) Acting Director Zainoden “Zeno” M. Usudan, chief, Pilgrimage Operation, and Finance Management Service (NCMF-FMS) Acting Director Khamil M. Manalundong.
Abdurahim also ordered the refund, in batches, of Php37 million to the Hajj 2024 pilgrims to make up for Camp Fee differential — Zone 3 to Zone 5, as reported.
The refund distribution was made on May 21 by Manalundong at his FMS Office. He handed Php7,500 to each of the first batch of departing pilgrims from May 23 to 26, the NCMF said.
Daut-Ramos said the amount is a nice addition to the pilgrims’ pocket money for their pilgrimage.
Manalundong indicated in a message to SDN — SciTech & Digital News that there would be refund for Hajj 2023 and Hajj 2024 after this year’s pilgrimage.
Highly respected Sheikh Ustadhz Mohammad Taha Ebus Edza, a colleague of Abdurahim in many pilgrimages, lauded the reforms currently being put in place by the new NCMF secretary.
Sheikh Ebus Edza said it is clear that Secretary Abdurahim is putting front and center the welfare and wellbeing of Filipino pilgrims, especially that he knows very well the problems that affected the Makkah pilgrimage every year.
“Let us support NCMF Secretary Sabuddin N. Abdurahim as he implements reforms in the Commission, more so in the handling of the annual Hajj,” Sheikh Ebus Edza appealed to his fellow Muslims in the Philippines. (/)