No ‘platinum decision’ on PALEA case, please!, union asks CA

PRESS RELEASE

March 01, 2012

PALEA

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) has declared no break in their campaign for labor justice even as the prosecutors in the ongoing impeachment trial against Chief Justice Renato Corona rested its case and the impeachment court took a week-long recess.   

Some 100 PALEA members staged a rally at the Court of Appeals (CA) where its case against the outsourcing scheme of Philippine Airlines (PAL) is pending.  PALEA members appealed on CA justices not to do a Corona whose flip-flopping decision on the FASAP case, they believed, was greatly influenced by special privileges PAL extended to him and his wife. 

“No ‘Platinum’ decision on PALEA case, please!” cried PALEA members who remain defiant against the airline’s implementation of its outsourcing and contractualization plan.  PALEA members still maintain a protest camp ouside PAL’s In-flight Center and Catering Services building along MIA Road since they were locked out by the management in October 1, 2011.

It is recalled that the prosecution’s attempt to present PAL executive Enrique Javier as witness for Article 3 to shed light on the allegation that CJ Corona and his wife received privileges from PAL while the FASAP case remains pending at the SC, was blocked by the impeachment court.

“Since Javier’s testimony and evidences were not presented in the impeachment court due to procedural prohibitions, we believe that the pubilc has the right to know what lies behind PAL’s platinum card and its significance to labor cases pending before the courts

PAL’s platinum card, as stated by the defense lawyer, is being offered to VIPs, including high government officials.  But under the Constitution and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Chief Justice and all other government officials are barred from soliciting or receiving such privileges to avoid conflict of interest and maintain probity and integrity in public service. 

CJ Corona and his wife Cristina have PAL Platinum Card No. A752 and A753 respectively.  As platinum card holders, they enjoy free and unlimited business class travel privileges, both local and international, which the couple eagerly availed in 2010 and 2011. 

“We hope and pray that PALEA does not suffer the fate of FASAP whose victory, after 13 long years of struggle for justice, was averted by a ‘Pilato-num’ decision of the Chief Justice,” stated PALEA President Gerry Rivera.

Before the rally at the CA, PALEA members went around the university belt in Manila in a motorcade to drum up support from the students.  The union and its supporters in the labor and civil society movement extend their boycott campaign against PAL and Air Philippines among the students in anticipation for the surge of passengers back to the provinces after the end of the semester.

PALEA calls for PAL’s testimony on platinum card in to impeachment rally

Press Release

February 27, 2012

PALEA

In a rally before the start of today’s impeachment trial, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) once more aired its call for the Senator-judges to allow the testimony of Philippine Airlines (PAL) management on the privileges given to Chief Justice Renato Corona and his wife. “We hope that in the caucus today, the Senators will reconsider Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s decision to deny the testimony of PAL VP for Sales Enrique Javier on the platinum card given to CJ Corona,” declared Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM).

More than a hundred PALEA members together with a group from PM picketed the Senate grounds this noon. The protesters distributed makeshift platinum cards to passers-by in allusion to the privilege extended by PAL to CJ Corona.

Before the protest at the impeachment trial, PALEA and PM held a motorcade that passed by the different PAL offices such Nichols, Data Center Building, PNB Building and PAL Learning Center (Faura).  The motorcade commemorated the 5^th month of PALEA’s protest at Terminal 2 and the implementation of PAL’s outsourcing plan.

“Five months into PALEA’s protest against outsourcing and contractualization, thousands of our members remain steadfast in the struggle. If reports are indeed true that the flag carrier will be acquired by a new owner, then we call on them to make PAL fly high again by resolving the labor dispute and reinstating the locked out workers back to their regular jobs,” Rivera insisted.

PM meanwhile countered President Benigno Aquino’s pronouncement at the EDSA celebration yesterday that the judiciary needs to be reformed in pursuit of good governance. “Indeed people need to participate in the fight to reform government but change cannot be achieved by simply impeaching the Chief Justice and prosecuting former President Gloria Arroyo. As shown by the experience of PALEA and FASAP, the corruption and greed of the 1% affects not just the high officials of the judiciary but also of the executive and even the legislature. To give justice to PALEA and workers, we need reforms beyond Gloria and Corona,” explained Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

PALEA and PM insisted that they will not be a party to the conflict between “factions of the 1%.” Magtubo added that “We did not participate in the EDSA activities yesterday and will not join the Luneta mobilization tomorrow which are just shows of force by the opposing camps of the elite. The 99% should allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder by any of the factions of the 1%. We call on the people, especially the workers, to organize into an independent movement that will struggle for a new EDSA based on radical social change. Poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment will not be solved, albeit only worsen, with ousting presidents and impeaching chief justices. Reform will be won by changing the system.”