Done, Undone

Manila Standard

Thursday, September 24, 1998

Medium Rare

By JULLIE YAP DAZA

EVEN if the voting at PAL had turned out to be a "yes" to keep the airline flying, the final say would still have to come from the creditors and investors who hold the key to the vault.

Even if the Air Force were to step in and take over to fly government documents, mail and parcels, the PAF has only four airplanes and no pilot who has been trained to fly commercial planes. (It takes P2 million and many months to prepare a pilot on the domestic route to upgrade to international.)

And even if government with all good intentions could and would translate those wishes into action, such as announcing a plan to inject P1.5 billion for the first three months of a temporary custody of the airline, that money won't go very far. Operational costs come up to P150 million a day.

Like the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, talking is all that can be done for now. How can we save PAL? But "talking points" faxed to newspaper offices the other day by PAL's corporate communications staff were very blunt on one point: "The talking and the debating are over:"

It's done, Undone.

Danding Cojuangco, another rich man with a bold heart, is interested in rescuing the airline. The magnitude of his patriotic vision to keep Asia's first airline aloft may be incomprehensible to those of us who are more comfortable counting nickels and dimes, but if I were Danding, I'd make sure that when I do come in. I won't he walking on egg shells dealing with a handful of leaders who treat management as an adversary rather than as a partner.

The "no" votes of Tuesday's referendum were a surprise. First, because the total number of ballots cast came up to 2,500 only, or less than a third of the number expected out of a work force of 9,000.

In the first stage of the count, the "yes" votes led by a slim margin, In the end, however, that slim margin went to the "no:" Surprised? Maybe not; maybe disappointed.

To PAL's foreign creditors and investors, who had approved the rehabilitation plan and insisted on the one condition of industrial peace and harmony, the message is loud and clear and unequivocal. After all those prayer meetings, touching open letters to the public and newspaper readers, the group — a minority, as it turns out — who were in favor of a suspension of the CBA for 10 years in exchange for three seats in the board for employee-nominees and 60,000 shares of stock per employee in the active payroll will now have to swallow the bitter pill. They are out-numbered. Their colleagues don't want PAL or they don't want Lucio Tan.

Will they welcome Danding Cojuangco? They didn't like Lucio Tan serving passengers Absolute bottled water and Asia beer; will they allow Danding to serve Coke and San Miguel beer?