Miyazawa Fund Eyed for PAL

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Tuesday, December 29, 1998

PRESIDENT Estrada said yesterday he was eyeing Japan's $30.-billion fund for ailing Asian economies to help rehabilitate the money-losing Philippine Airlines (PAL) and keep it flying.

Mr Estrada said tapping the fund, proposed by Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa in October, was "our alternative" to the search for a strategic partner for PAL. “We will try our best to see to it that PAL will continue its operations," he said.

Earlier this month Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu had proposed that the government seek $150 million for the rehabilitation of PAL from the Miyazawa fund.

The fund, proposed by Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, is earnmarked for firms and governments hit by the Asian financial crisis.

PAL management had prepared a rehabilitation plan which calls for an infusion of $150 million in new money to keep PAL flying.

Some of this money was envisaged as coming from a strategic foreign investor but the failure of the talks with Cathay Pacific Airways and Northwest Airlines, has put the plan in peril, raising the possibility that PAL may have to close down if no new financing is found.

Estrada meanwhile said he was still hopeful PAL could still forge an agreement with Cathay Pacific despite the collapse of negotiations earlier. AFP