Save PAL

The Manila Times
Monday, September 21, 1998
From The E-Mail

BEFORE finally closing its operations, PAL is talking of spinning off catering and ground services to save the jobs of about 2,000 employees. Be on guard, for it will definitely be one of Lucio Tan's holding companies or dummy corporations.

As he has done with PAL, he will further milk these operations and continue selling his Beer-na-Beer, Carlsberg, hotel accommodations, etc. After sucking PAL dry and with a currently unsuccessful attempt to further milk the labor unions through an absurd stock option plan and 10-year CBA abrogation proposal, Lucio Tan is on a well-planned last minute robbery attempt. All these in the guise of helping the remaining labor force. All these to further deepen their pockets at the expense of the creditors, the flag carrier, and the hardworking labor force whom they have maliciously blamed for PAL’s troubles. It is a basic management and human relations problem but PAL management blames everybody except themselves.

The definite connivance between Lucio Tan, Edgardo Espiritu, Ronnie Zamora, Gabriel Singson, and others in government to rob the Filipino people of their labor rights and decency is outrageous. They are now on a public relations rampage to put the blame on the pilots and the PAL employees and cover-up their and Lucio Tan's crimes against PAL and the Filipino people. It's too bad the labor unions do not have a powerful and elaborate public relations machinery.

Freedom loving Filipinos, unite! Walang tutulong sa Pilipino kundi kapwa Pilipino din.

This is a time of national emergency. The government should use its emergency power to take over PAL. There are willing foreign investors. They have talked to the labor unions but they are being blocked by Tan's friends in the government. The PAL labor unions (PALEA, ALPAP, and FASAP) would give much greater concessions to a new owner as long as it is not Lucio Tan running the show. There will be industrial peace.

The flag carrier will rise to even greater heights. Now is the chance to take PAL away from Lucio Tan. To do otherwise would spell death and chaos for the Philippine economy and an insult to the Filipino people. LORELEI P. DEL.GADO lorelei@pworld.net.ph