By The Way

The Philippine Star

Monday, November 4, 1996

By MAX V. SOLIVEN

It's now clear that the Leftists and "former" Communists are dead-set on embarrassing President Ramos and "scaring away" the incoming APEC chiefs, delegates and diplomats. What benefit will redound to the Filipino people, whom these phoney-baloney "revolutionaries" and straw patriots profess to love, if the APEC summit is scuttled because they provoked such a loud noise and whipped up such a threatening atmosphere that nobody wanted to come? It's disgusting. What are they after? Merely the overthrow of our democratic government, so that they can seize power themselves.

I see so many of them strutting on the entablado nowadays, spouting bombastic nonsense. These same malcontents failed to overthrow our government and way of life by the gun, so they are trying to do the same thing by the mouth. Let them blah-blah themselves silly. The public is not buying their lies.

I see that the Philippine Airlines Employees' Association (PALEA) finally buckled under and signed an agreement to "return to work" under the sponsorship of Labor Secretary Leo Quisumbing, How can those PALEA union bosses undo the harm they have done to the Filipino people — the heck with the damage they did to the airline? They walked out on the eve of Todos los Santos and All ,Souls' Day, cancelling so many flights and wrecking the homecoming plans of so many scores of thousands of Filipino workers and students, that they ruined so many family reunions. And for this they want a raise?

When all is said and done, why should the 9,000 PALEA members believe they deserve a raise and added perks, cash and benefits? With them on the job, PAL became a No-Class airline, with a Never On Time Record, and a reputation centering around the PAL, Inc. title — meaning "Plane Always Late, If Not Cancelled." Some employees became notorious for smuggling. Others for pilfering spare parts from their own inventory stocks and warehouses and then reselling these to the airline. Others for being lazy, overweight, over-age and underachieving.

What "accomplishments" are these to merit a raise?

Poor Lucio Tan. Perhaps he thought PAL had "workers" when he bought majority control of that dying airline. Instead, he discovered, they were mostly "non-workers" and pensionados, whose only enthusiasm and expertise was to go on "strike."