We can perhaps look at what’s happening at Philippine Airlines today as something like birth pain. Maybe all the unpleasantness happening are necessary so that a new Philippine Airlines can emerge that’s not only profitable but a worthy flag carrier of the Republic. But I am not that sure.
In all honesty, PAL is now a seriously damaged brand. Its passengers were used by management and labor as hostages in their continuing battle of wills. Sara Soliven de Guzman, my colleague on the Opinion side of this paper related how some passengers were kept inside an aircraft for two hours or so. It was evil of labor to allow such a thing to happen and it is shamefully inutile of management to have been unable to do anything about it for that long.
