Column by Jesus Sison

Malaya

Thursday, September 24, 1998

By Jesus C. Sison

THE government is considering two plans to rescue Philippine Airlines from closing down completely. One is to place PAL under receivership or place it under a government corporation. This should be done immediately. If PAL is allowed to close down for even only one month, it will be a disaster.

In any case, the government will end up with one big headache. The government has already approved to lend P1.5-billion to PAL, so that it can continue its domestic operations. The international flights will have to be terminated. For how long, I don't know.

I and many people still maintain that the labor unions in PAL caused the death of the airlines. That's why the lowly workers of the airline will become jobless. That's why they were crying.