Close to the heart

Fairly recently the Philippine Air Lines employees staged a strike and paralyzed tens of flights in several of the country’s terminals.  I have always taken flights on PAL since I was a young kid.  I still have to try the feel of flying in a different airline.  But for all of my forty odd years in this planet and counting, there was never one occasion when I was stranded like the passengers that were affected by the PAL employees’ strike. Still, my heart bled for all the poor passengers who missed their schedules, suffered the agony of being trapped inside their planes and at the airport, unable to fight their sad plight.

It’s just that the old and rustic PAL is really close to the heart. I will miss flying if ever as Mr. by Boo Chanco of Philippine Star says in his article “Is PAL worth saving?” —

Maybe PAL should just be allowed to fly into the sunset the same way that the proud PanAM, the international flag carrier of the United States for many years, was allowed to fade away when the economics of that airline no longer made sense. With its shaky finances and now, its damaged brand reputation due to labor problems, there may no other choice.

That September day was a truly bad day for the employees themselves, the local and foreign passengers, the airline company and by association, the Filipino people as a whole since the airline in question is the country’s flag carrier no less.

In my work in both fields of finance and the security industries, I have come face to face with a large number of distraught humans who could not take their flight due to sudden, unavoidable circumstances.  One most memorable was during the Mt. Pinatubo explosion in 1991. Hundreds of commuters at the domestic and international airports were sent back due to cancelled flights.  I remember a Japanese guest at the five star hotel where I worked, beckoned me during rounds accompanied by a hotel detective and asked for bottled water and even just P10.00 cash, whatever for he was supposed to use it on.  The guest said he and his wife no longer had any cash left after being stranded several days in the Philippines.

I cannot recalled the name of the Japanese guest but in that same hotel alone, my experience with him was replicated hundreds of times with the other local, but mostly the foreign guests. (I guess our kababayans are really just masyadong mas mahiyain than their foreign counterparts, yes?)

To top it all, that protest on that bleak day of September 27 by the members of the PAL employees association coincided with the raging typhoon Pedring with a trailing tropical storm Quiel at its back. Such a really sordid twist.  At the onset, all I was thinking was that the cancellations were due to inclement weather. Sadly it was not.

If PAL were Sulpicio Lines, one could just imagine the relief of the passengers that the airline cancelled its flights.

But PAL has world class employees and pilots and assistant or understudy pilots. It was the strike of the world class personnel that kept the airline’s jets from flying. Fortunately, the incident appears to be isolated. It does not seem that it has something to do with movements that have political color. Or is there some nuance of color in that strike? In the same way that the Bangkok strike paralyzed the government instead of just the airport? This one really keeps me thinking hard.

The big issue behind all the brouhaha is the plan to outsource the personnel of PAL and this is something that the employees of the former government owned organization vehemently reject.

Possibly, their thinking is that without being in the regular plantilla of the airline, they are in danger of being removed at will by PAL. And so they began their round of protests and whipped it up with a huge main event that crippled nearly all the flights of the flag carrier on September.

By and large, the PALEA and their apologists would be justifying their actions, but I personally cannot agree to the wisdom of that strike.  Unless of course, there was and really is a higher purpose to it, the employees simply hammered the last nail in the coffin.

As to whose coffin that was, we can only guess. But as things appear, the Supreme Court did not side with the PALEA and their affiliate organization, the FASAP over the legal issues on the dismissal of the PAL employees. It was a big blow to the struggle of the mutinous airline employees.

Another Philippine Star columnist says that PAL owner, Mr. Lucio Tan, must have bought the Philippines just because selected Supreme Court rulings favored the group of companies of Tan.  What hogwash!

Perhaps the serious lack of acceptance and understanding of the economics and finance of PAL could really lead to more problems for the airline.  Look at how a lot of grandstanding personalities and politicians are quick to hit at the Supreme Court over the decision disfavoring the PAL employees — we will write more about this in the days to come.

According to a retired former bureau chief of a foreign news daily, a compromise agenda that PAL employees or the FASAP can hammer on is to form their own manpower agency, to engage in manpower supply themselves.  This and many other less adversarial nor confrontational tactics and strategies could certainly be a more positive and healthy move.

It is also written on the wall, that whatever the plight of our country’s private enterprise could worsen in the coming year so there will always be a lose-lose situation instead of a win-win scenario in the near future.  What a waste!

Meanwhile, because of a low tolerance between the parties in the dispute, there will be no resolution and the ultimate outcome might not be good for our taste buds at all.

If the PAL employees can come up with truly constructive demands and fight for them at the negotiating table, it is likely that there will be no need to suffer innocent consumers to prove the point that the end justifies the means, even if the end appears to be wrong.  But if there were really a higher purpose to it all, only the protesting employees, their families and the riding public preferring PAL like I do, have a lot to lose.

And that’s why this issue is really close to the heart.

Will Noynoy not fold up?

Noynoy declared he is running for president. Carie says, he is not fit. Mar withdrew from the presidential race but Noynoy said today he offered the Vice President slot to Mar.

What happens next? The show of force at Club Filipino was quite formidable. Better if they could convert that into votes. But kulelat the Noynoy. And he might continue to be so.

This means there is really no Cory magic after all. So will he stay or fold up later? We don’t know and have not yet talked to our friends supporting Noynoy. But FVR? He always works major magic, anytime, anywhere. Read the full content of Carie’s post also here…

Leandro Mendoza’s coup d’ etat!

 

DOTC’s gain, Boncodin’s loss

 

 

Now that Sec. Mendoza is working towards the operationalization of the National Transport Safety Board Philippine version (calling on Shawn O’Donnell and company!!! calling on the Asian Development Bank !!!  you gave the first glimmer of hope when you pledged support for the privatization of the air traffic control of the Republic of the Philippines in 1995!!!), the secretary is The Man!  At  least for those of us that are lowly bloggers, blogging feverishly about the safety of all our brethren in air, sea and on land.  Pinoy or foreigner, young and old, male or female, alike.  More on this post here…

Kudos, Sec. Mendoza; the poor Coast Guard

The DOTC ordered the grounding of Sulpicio Lines floating marine assets.

Congratulations for that.  Wow!  As we were saying about two days ago, the seaworthiness of the assets of shipping companies need to be thoroughly checked.  But the best manner to handle this is to form a safety agency as they are doing in the rest of the world.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is being blamed  as the ultimate perpetrator of the killing of the victims of the tragedy.  Perchance, so too is Sulpicio Lines.

Why the PCG?  Because, well, not because the huge and supposedly luxurious MV Princess of the  Stars is a quarter of a century old since many ships can still sail long after they have lived for fifty years or half a century.

Not because the MV Princess of the Stars had gone from one owner to another, then another, then another and so on then  Sulpicio Lines grabbed it.  And it was probably deemed junk by then.  And they had a mighty bargain that they possibly held a five-week-long party to celebrate their tremendous steal!!!

Not because the managers of Sulpicio are terrible idiots at running their shipping company that they allowed the MV Doña Paz to sail into a disaster that ate up the lives of thousands of passengers.

Not because the metallic underside of MV Princess of the Stars was so  weak that it had to give during the storm when the ship allegedly sumadsad sa bato (for goodness sake, why does Sulpicio send out low quality amphibian boats that can’t withstand rocks?) and the makina ay tumigil.  Wow!

That’s both unforeseen, fortuitous event and mechanical error.  Just the type for insurance companies to pay for when the source of the accident is not human error — as in that of Sulpicio’s.

So now it’s accident (nabutas ang bakal) +  fortuitous event — typhoon Frank, pumasok ang tubig + mechanical accident (namatay ang makina).

Equals = insurance claims of nearly a hundred million dollars from insurers and underwriters.

And add to the equation, the poverty of PCG for which reason, Sulpicio sonofabitches fucking shits gave alms to their weary palms.

Someone said, the PCG is so poor that even their diesel is always up for sale.  When the President and the higher ups say:  ”Hoy, habulin ninyo ang Abo Suyya!”  ”Mga totoy, hulihin ang mga pirata!” “Oy, ano, intersepin niyo ang mga illegal fishing boats!” “Daliiii!”  ”Ano ba!?!&%$#”  ”Kilos na!!!”

The PCG will allegedly only very demurely quip:

“Ay Maaam, Siiir, ay surreee po, wala tayo krudu!!!)

So, Sulpicio knowing, and feeling compassion, gave alms to the Coast Guard.  And Coast Guard supposedly feeling the crunch, accepted the beggar’s relief cash.  Possibly some relief goods too.

Sulpicio probably knew there was a disaster-in-waiting.  They gave out relief cash and goods in advance.

So now, Sulpicio Lines, cannot and can never be blamed.  They have to be the final heroes here, when they open their eyes after taking the insurance and  see that they have bodies to bury and money to pay to the surviving kin of all the (fucking, why did they have to be) dead.

Only in the Philippines.  Only in the Philippines.

The poor are always at the receiving end of bad Justice systems.  So the poor Coast Guard has to pay for the crime.

The PCG Commander, Adm. Tamayo has to go, just because he is penniless and powerless.  And his people are so dirt  poor and hungry that they’re crawling on their belies just to move.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the country, the weather is now improving with a little touch of dark clouds and a teeny weeny stormy condition approaching.  The poor Philippine Coast Guard will no longer have to take the alms of shipping company Sulpicio.  Their boss, Sec. Mendoza grounded the alms givers.

Tsk!  Tsk!  Kawawa naman!

May mga pamilya pa naman ang mga kosgard!  Kawawa talaga sila!

Kawawa din ang mga nalunod at namatay at mga pamilya!

Dahil sa kanila, may mga yayaman sa lagay at insurance!!! At dahil nagpakamatay sila, aba’y ala silang suwerti. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

Sincerely, Madam Arroyo should read this…

Dear Madam President:

 

 

MV Princess of the Stars’ sinking is a terrific tragedy.  It is another point scored against government in the subject of safety.  You have every right to be angry at the incident.  A law has already been passed providing for the creation of the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) out of an original proposal to former President Fidel V.  Ramos for establishing a Philippine Safety Council by Executive Order (EO).  Instead of putting out an EO due to the need for the creation of a new office, legislation was sought by former Pres.  Ramos.  Congress complied and before the end of his tenure as President, the NTSB law was passed.

 

However, I remember with grave sadness Congress and DOTC complaining that after the law was enacted Ms. Emilia Boncodin told them in a letter sending back the manuscript of the enacted law, that sorry, government has no money.  That is patent bull shit, Madam President.  Boncodin meant that DBM had nothing to spare to support a new agency such as a safety agency.  Ms. Boncodin had it all wrong.  She has so much money in the banks, in real estates, in houses and lands named after her relatives, in shares of stocks of blue chip PSE listed corporations, and in many other places who knows where!

 

Boncodin merely stopped short of telling Congress and the Executive Branch: don’t fuck with DBM because it is mine!  Don’t even salivate after DBM money because it is mine alone to dispense!!!  Shit!!!

 

 

(Above, photo of shit ugly Miss Emilia/Emily Boncodin, adoptive daughter of Madam Cory Aquino.  Golden Gown sold by Syracuse.)

 

For the love of God, during her (Boncodin’s) time, she even demands cash or checks just before releasing funds to a payee (contractor, supplier) of the government via the DBM and her take runs to millions up to a high of hundreds of millions or even more!  And she won’t release the money unless she gets her suitcase- or boxfull of money, a cheque or even a post-dated cheque (PDC), the bitch!  Garapal, Madam President!  Masyadong garapal, that Boncodin!

 

And then she and her fellow thieves who banded together in the group called HYATT 10 (Dinky Soliman, Mely Nicolas, King Deles, etc.  who got at the very least 100 million each from the Peace Bonds Super Scam) had the nerve to say they were resigning from a corrupt government.  Their group HYATT 10 came to be known as Black and White Movement (BnW) — that high and mighty group doing its best to moralize the country to their own brand of stupid morality.  Again much later they became the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) — the same stupid corrupt maniacs by another name.  Now they say they are the BUSINA! The shits, Madam President, the wretched of our society.

 

Boncodin (not to mention her fellow thieves), is / are to blame for many of our poor people’s, of all our citizens’ woes.  DBM’s word is like God’s Law.  What DBM says, sticks.  When DBM speaks, all the Cabinet and all the Legislators, all the Judiciary trembles.  The MV Princess of the Stars would never have happened if DBM did not torpedo the law and acted on it so its intent will be actualized.

 

But selfish interests prevail over humane compassion and respect for life and property.  Self-aggrandizement comes first before the universally recognized concept of not letting non-land worthy, unseaworthy and non-airworthy assets be allowed to embark from their stations.

 

This is notwithstanding that said assets should also not be allowed to set off in very inclement weather conditions.  So that none nor nothing will blamed if a mishap takes places.

 

Therefore Madam President, whether or not Ms. Boncodin will be put in jail for superlative performance of corruption in government during her time from a simple Director, Assistant or Under Secretary then Secretary, it is most respectfully prayed, albeit begged that you finally take the final steps towards operationalizing the NTSB.

 

From a moral standpoint, the MV Princess of the Stars tragedy is not just accidental deaths of the innocent, hapless casualties! It is a deliberate mass murder of helpless victims just because of that overwhelming determination to amass a hideously humongous amount of dirty wealth!!!

 

It will be feather in your cap and I grant that you’ll be remembered for a long time for advocating safety more than the other presidents had ever done!  At least FVR will be cited for possibly certifying the proposed safety bill as urgent, if that ever happened.  But it will be to your credit that the law finally became a reality!

 

Remember,  you have always said you respect the Rule of Law.  Well, let’s give the Law its due.  Godspeed!

 

More power to you and may you have a successful trip outside of the country!

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Girbaudz