PALEA to Tourism Congress: Ask PAL to open talks

Press Release
October 7, 2011
PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) called on the
Tourism Congress to exert moral suasion on Philippine Airlines (PAL)
to open talks to resolve the ongoing labor dispute in the face of the
company’s refusal to negotiate with the union. The Tourism Congress
had expressed concern that the labor row is negatively affecting the
influx of tourists.

Meanwhile two PALEA officers today appeared at the Southern Police
District (SPD) Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City as part of
the investigation of an incident involving the entry of four policemen
to the PAL In-Flight Center at MIA Road last Wednesday. Jake Garcia
and George Dela Rosa, PALEA board members, filed their affidavits this
morning in the complaint against the policemen headed by a certain
PInsp. Neil Deveraturda.

Last October 5, at around 6:45 a.m., a Toyota Revo with SPD markings
and body number 408 were confronted by PALEA members due to the
suspicious nature of it entry. The policemen were found to be detailed
at Taguig and were unable to answer questions by PALEA officers Garcia
and dela Rosa why they had not coordinated with the Pasay police and
the Inter Agency Monitoring Center which has jurisdiction.

Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa,
warned police against conniving with PAL’s plan to dismantle the
protest camp. “Unfortunately for PAL, PALEA’s peaceful protest is
allowed by the Labor Code. The police should learn from the mistake of
their commander-in-chief PNoy who has remained deafeningly silent
after his shoot-from-hip threat of filing an economic sabotage case
against PALEA”

Rivera also replied to the Tourism Congress’ call that PALEA should
follow the decisions of the Labor Department and Office of the
President. He said that “The Tourism Congress is barking at the wrong
tree. It is PAL which is not respecting the judicial process by
prematurely implementing the outsourcing plan when there is no final
decision by the courts.”

“If the Tourism Congress wants to be a spokesperson for the riding
public then they should abstain from intervening in the legal issues
and concern themselves with issues of airline safety and efficient
service. They should investigate if the overworked and untrained scabs
being used by PAL to fly its greatly reduced number of flights are up
to par in safety and efficiency. They might be shocked by what they
unearth should they pursue an honest to goodness inquiry on behalf of
the passengers and tourists,” Rivera insisted.