Judge inspects PAL protesters' 'campsite'

MANILA, Philippines - A Pasay City judge hearing a complaint by Philippine Airlines accusing its former workers of blocking the ingress and engress to PAL’s Inflight Center (IFC) has conducted an ocular inspection of the protesters’ “campsite,” a source said Thursday.

Regional Trial Court Branch 116 Judge Racquelen Vasquez, accompanied by lawyers representing PAL and the PAL Employees’ Association, toured the “tent city” to assess if the airline’s complaint has basis.

During the inspection, Vasquez and the team noted that the IFC’s side gates along Baltao Road remain blocked, while the facility’s main entrance along MIA Road was opened to traffic only since Friday.

In the tents set up on the IFC’s parking lot, the inspecting team found more than 30 arnis batons, torches, gallons of gasoline, and barbed wire.

 The ocular inspection was conducted following oral arguments on PAL’s urgent motion for injunction before Vasquez, the pairing judge of Judge Eugenio de la Cruz, who is currently on leave.

The airline had secured a 72-hour temporary restraining order against the protesters, but the TRO lapsed when a Pasay court sheriff was ordered not to enforce the TRO after the case was raffled off to Judge Maria Rosario Ragasa. When Ragasa refused to extend the TRO, PAL lawyers asked her to inhibit herself from the case. She did, and the case was re-raffled to De la Cruz.

PAL accused its dismissed workers of grave coercion, a criminal offense, when they were documented barring a PAL truck from leaving the facility last Oct. 29. At least 41 PALEA members are facing charges before the city prosecutor’s office.

The protesting workers have been in the area since Sept. 27, following a wildcat strike that paralyzed PAL’s operations. The work stoppage stranded 14,000 passengers during the height of typhoon “Pedring.”

The workers are protesting PAL’s spinoff and outsourcing of its catering, airport services and call center reservations functions, which have been taken over by third-party service providers since Oct. 1.