A wonderful description of Ninoy Aquino Airport, Castlerock! I would just add (from my limited experience there) that, although the system is as bizarre and infuriating as you describe, most of the actual people I encountered (be they immigration officers, check-in staff, security or whatever) were actually very pleasant and friendly ... it's just like another FTer posted recently in another thread on this forum: "The Philippines is the Country that Logic Forgot!"

For example, I investigated the possibility of changing my outbound onward (MNL-KUL with MH) for an earlier flight (I was at 7 pm but I saw there was one at 3pm); so, I asked at the MH desk if there was an MH ticket office at the airport: "Certainly, Sir, it's upstairs!" "Fine, thank-you," said I as I wandered off; 10 minutes later I had to ask a well-informed-looking guy, "Excuse me, Sir, can you tell me where the stairs are?" "Yes! Go outside (you have to show your ticket again to get out of the departures building, and then explain why you want to go outside), turn left, and it's the second door on the left."

I went outside, turned left, and entered the second door on the left. Stopped by a burly security officer: "Where are you going?" "MH ticket office." "Please show your passport to the registration officer, then sign a form, then pass your bags and jacket through the scanner, then you can go upstairs." (And the MH office is well hidden at the back of a labyrinthine network of unmarked passages.)

It just goes on and on and on! For you, Castlerock, going through this sort of nonsense 4 times a year must get really tiresome ... but I hope the visits to the Philippines are themselves worth the hassle.

-- Henry