PAL asks detractors to stop wild, baseless accusations

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Airlines (PAL) yesterday lashed out at its detractors for hastily laying the blame on airline management for Saturday’s confrontation at the PAL Inflight Center in Pasay City.

In a statement, PAL said those who know nothing better than to make wild and baseless accusations against the airline should shut up and let the police do the investigative work.

The airline said it was grossly irresponsible for some left-leaning sectoral representatives to accuse PAL management of harassing laid off workers.

“It was clear from news reports and photos taken from the scene that former PAL workers barred the airline’s catering truck from leaving its own facility. They were armed with rattan truncheons, planks with nails and even burned a carton box, all with the aim of inflicting harm should the truck driver insist on leaving PAL’s Inflight Center. So who’s harassing who?” PAL asked.

PAL said it was also lamentable that police authorities “were nowhere to be found” when its truck was being blocked by protesters, but conveniently “arrested” someone who claims to have been hired by PAL management to “disperse” its former employees’ camp.

“Worse, authorities were reportedly unable to apprehend those responsible for the death of a hapless bystander,” PAL said.

As to the stench allegedly emanating from its Inflight Center, PAL said protesting former PAL workers have only themselves to blame. “They won’t allow our trucks to leave the facility, even a garbage truck from Pasay City’s waste management office was prevented by protesters from picking up garbage unless these were brought to the IFC gate. And now they complain that the area stinks? Let them have a dose of their own medicine,” PAL stressed.

On PAL’s alleged refusal to provide protesting former workers with free tickets, it said: “PAL reserves the right to refuse conveyance to those who make false and malicious claims that the airline is unsafe and whose ultimate goal is to bring down the company.”

PAL staff based in the airline’s North America regional office in San Francisco denounced the picket staged last Oct. 27 by American unionists in the Bay Area in support of dismissed PAL workers in Manila.

The San Francisco-based PAL union members expressed collective support to the airline’s efforts at normalizing operations after implementation of its outsourcing program last Oct. 1.

In a signed manifesto, 10 US-based PAL unionists rejected calls to join the Oct. 27 picket held in front of the Philippine Consulate led by members of the Burlingame, California-based International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

“We do not approve of such demonstration and refuse to participate. In these hard and difficult economic times, let us not aggravate the situation with noisy and disruptive demonstrations,” said the group in reply to a letter-invitation by union steward Danilo Mirabucao.

The letter was signed by the following PAL union members: Jennifer del Rosario, Maria Josephine Encarnacion, Editha Gelasio, Teresa Jante, Carmencita Macante, Shirley Ong, Edwin Perez, Emilyn Roxas-Liwag, Rosita Tobes and Theresa Jasmin Houwer of the San Francisco station.

‘Casualty not  involved in row’

Meanwhile, Malacañang maintained yesterday that the lone casualty who was caught in the clash between protesting dismissed workers from the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) was not involved in the labor row affecting the flag-carrier.

“They (authorities) were able to determine that the lone casualty  (had nothing to do with the labor issue). Unfortunately, he was just caught in the middle of the riot because he was near, but he was not part of the picket line,” clarified deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte.

Valte was referring to Arvin Macalalad who died of cardiac arrest when he was caught in the middle of the PALEA strike and that of a still unidentified group who attacked the picket line over the weekend in Pasay City.

She nevertheless said that the incident is already being investigated by the Department of Labor and Employment under Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, and developments on the situation are being monitored.

PALEA employees had been separated from the flag-carrier since Oct. 1, in line with an outsourcing program that no less than President Aquino has approved. PALEA has questioned the legality of PAL’s outsourcing in the courts.

The Palace official said they understand the concerns of both parties, and have called on them to “exercise sobriety in their dealings with each other” so that similar incidents would not happen again.

Valte said they did not know when the standoff would end, citing the pending legal issues that have been raised, but that as far as the Office of the President is concerned, Aquino has already made a decision upholding PAL’s outsourcing program.

Aquino stood pat on his decision, even if it meant more PAL employees would be displaced and dismissed as a result of the outsourcing program, noting that “the airline is in distress, they need a reformatting of their corporation to survive.”

“We would like to sympathize with those in PALEA who were going to get into their collective bargaining agreement. But the interests of the 10 million OFWs far outweigh the thousands or the 2,000 or so that were affected by PALEA,” he pointed out.

“There is no perfect solution to this mess but it is part and parcel of the changing realities with the economic situation in the entire world,” he told foreign journalists in a forum last month.

“What is the national interest? If you define the national interest, there are 10 million Filipinos overseas. With what has been happening in the Middle East, one would want airlines capable of going to the Middle East to fetch our citizens,” Aquino stressed.

“We could not allow the national flag carrier and the only other airline capable of reaching those destinations to become non-entities and lose that ability to do it, if there was a need to repatriate our countrymen,” he explained.