Landscape

PAL's predicament
By GEMMA CRUZ ARANETA
August 4, 2010, 5:46pm
Manila Bulletin

"It is not the money; it’s respect and treatment.” That statement of a pilot of Philippine Airlines (PAL) is charged with meaning and gives us a clue as to what must be going on in that privately owned company.

Judging from the stealth and haste of the mass departure of pilots, resentment must have been festering to bursting point.

PAL’s predicament is not even a wake-up call; we are beyond that now. Perhaps it has little to do with “brain drain” (now a national institution) or with seeking “greener pastures” or mere wanderlust. Maybe the moral of the PAL fairytale is that public utilities are so terribly vital and dangerously strategic that these should not be given to the private sector.

There was a time when PAL was a true flag carrier, meaning to say it was a government-operated and controlled corporation. Unfortunately, officials in the cupola of power junketing with hefty entourages and colorful retinues never paid a centavo for their trips so PAL became bankrupt beyond redemption.

Today, in private hands, it’s disabled.

So, whether in government hands or in the clutches of the private sector, PAL is always in a dreadful predicament. (gemma601@yahoo.com)