At Large

Wrong priorities
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:44:00 08/10/2010

REPORTS HAVE it that Trade Secretary Greg Domingo is about to sign an order excluding imported ceramic tiles from the Mandatory Standard List. This means that tiles imported from abroad would no longer need to be tested locally for safety and hygiene before being sold here.

The move, say local ceramic tile manufacturers, could open the door to flooding by cheap sub-standard tiles, tiles that could break or rupture when immersed in floods, exposing homeowners and the public to molds and bacteria that could lodge within the broken tiles and grouts.
Tiles, say the Ceramic Tile Manufacturers Association, are judged on both aesthetic and hygienic points. Kitchens and bathrooms need to be tiled with properly tested materials, which is why government inspectors refuse to issue permits to fast-food outlets or restaurant commissaries which do not use properly tested and approved tiles.

A related issue, say the local manufacturers who together employ a 2,000-strong workforce, is that exempting foreign-made tiles from local testing gives the impression that locally made tiles are inferior. The biggest players in the industry—Mariwasa-Siam, Lepanto Tiles, Euro Tiles and Tanzen Tiles—stand by the reliability of their products, asserting that locally made tiles pass the stringent standards of the Bureau of Product Standards.

The move to de-list imported tiles, it was revealed, may be part of the P-Noy administration’s efforts to cut down on red tape. But while there may indeed be a backlog in the BPS on the testing of products, the problem could be best addressed by streamlining administrative procedures, not by favoring imports over local products.

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PHILIPPINE Airlines has expressed hope it could “resolve its labor problems and arrive at a consensus” in its talks with different groups of employees, including flight attendants and stewards as well as office and ground personnel. Actually, PAL also faces problems with some pilots, whose departure from the airline triggered a very public dispute that has led to the cancellation of some flights and the intervention of Malacañang, but an earlier dispute led to the non-recognition of the pilots’ association as a bargaining unit.

The latest news about PAL’s labor woes is that FASAP, the association of attendants and stewards, has won an injunction from a court regarding the implementation of what the association calls the airline’s “discriminatory” retirement policy.

The policy requires mandatory retirement at age 55 for women attendants and retirement at age 60 for men, for those hired before November 1996. For those hired after November 1996, PAL revised the age requirement to an even lower age limit: 45 years for both men and women, and 40 years for those hired November 2000.

Some attendants interviewed on TV said the early retirement imperiled their ability to provide for their families, since this did not allow them enough time to save up for the post-retirement period. “How can we be expected to look for new jobs at age 40 or older?” a female flight attendant said on camera.

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INDEED, by her looks alone, the female attendant could pass for someone years, even decades older. I remember that when the issue of discriminatory retirement ages was first brought up, many observers agreed with PAL management, saying passengers deserved to be served by young, attractive attendants.

But such an attitude was demolished by the experiences of foreign airlines, whose older attendants proved both competent and able to handle the pressures of looking after a planeload of demanding passengers while taking care of their safety. Besides, the fitness craze has meant that individuals in their 40s and 50s can still maintain the stamina and energy of those decades younger.


Besides, the days of using nubile stewardesses as marketing come-ons have come and gone. These days, passengers look more for prompt and efficient service in a stress-filled traveling experience rather than eye candy.

With their early retirement policy, PAL management has made clear that they value youth over experience, appearance over competence and looks over loyalty.

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PAL PILOTS have made it clear that they left the airline for many other reasons besides more attractive pay packages offered by foreign airlines.

What strikes me about the dispute with the pilots is that an employer cannot treat valuable and skilled personnel such as pilots like indentured servants without risking losing them to competitors. PAL has tried hard to paint the pilots as the villains of the piece, who endanger national security and the convenience of the flying public, not to mention the future of the tourism industry by abandoning their posts.

But as we have come to realize, the problem with the pilots is a problem of PAL’s own making, with the bosses offering too little, too late to appease professionals who in fact had many options before them. I doubt if other professionals, facing the same situation as the PAL pilots, would have allowed themselves to be exploited indefinitely, with little hope of seeing redress.