The recent strike of Philippine Airlines workers created a huge backlog. More than 14,000 passengers that were victims of stranding will reclaim their right to their airline seats.

Despite the overzealous attention paid to transcontinental flights such as US-Manila and Manila-US, major obstacles were experienced. The nightmare continues. After the strike was considered called off, these thousands of passengers remained stranded, hoping for openings in PAL’s skeleton flights.

For this to happen to the oldest airline of Asia no less, is really an abomination. It will take more than just days, nay weeks, for PAL to fully get back on its feet again. And things will no longer be the same.

Elize’s godsister’s flight to Singapore could not push through, and she was detained along with more than one hundred passengers inside the aircraft. Godsister told Elize over dinner after her love letter, that she cried for days just because of the missed interviews in Singapore. She said, she was called by her job prospects and told not to pursue the applications with them. She cried for many more days after the calls.

But she didn’t cry because there was nothing she could do. She was crying from the pain of being unable to fly and land at Changi Airport, plus everyone including her was shocked when they were locked inside the plane and no one was there to rescue them from what she called, the hideous reptiles. Oh my!

It will cost PAL more than US 20 Million to get back on track. And another huge sum to repair the damage caused by the strike. This one is more costly since it involves the tears and fractures in the Philippine flag carrier’s international reputation, loss of goodwill, bad public relations, notwithstanding the consistent attacks through media of the workers of PAL and their supporters from the Partido Manggagawa, the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Alliance of Philippine Labor, Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines, the do-gooders in the Philippine political scene including the President’s closest political adviser no less, and many other supposed long-time and sudden enemies of Allied Group of Companies.

All told, US 100 Million would be a measly sum to bail the airline out of its present predicament. With a 77% drop in income as of March 2011 as reported by Reuters, PAL is certain to suffer more waist tightening measures as soon as word about their declining revenues come in.

This comes at the tail end of PAL’s plan to acquire a new fleet of aircraft that would certainly cost a mind boggling sum. If I owned PAL, I’d be thinking hard twice over about a  lot of critical areas before plunging into the new fleet purchase. And that would be opportunities lost, I know. But what could I do if I was at the top of a business that would crumble if I didn’t plug the holes?

Luckless, PAL has to make do with a sordid situation. Faced by legal battles back home and a labor union run amuck, the airline really has to fend for itself, alone, on its own — something that’s scary for its position as national flag carrier.

Surely, a country with stiffer laws and regulations would not suffer the same fate from its airline workers. But that’s democracy in action, and whether its a tough pill to swallow, PAL has just got to go with the flow and its passengers will suffer with them, until they shift their money to other airlines.

At a coffeeshop sortie at the Intercontinental Hotel, I overheard someone say: “What if PAL offers 20 Million pesos to the union leader?”

The response was: “Huh! Ka Popoy will turn in his grave!”

Another responder: “Mali! Someone just nearby will be smiling up to their ears!!!”

I wonder what someone nearby meant? Do you? Perhaps it’s one of Elize’s godsister’s reptiles slithering near Cafe 365 at the Intercon.

Right now, too much attention is focused on the issue of the recall of the Second Division of the Supreme Court (SC) resolution favoring the petition of dismissed members of the Philippine Air Lines Employees’ Association by the SC en banc.  Thus, it should definitely be worth a few moments to look at the context of the case to see the bigger picture.

Philippine Air Lines – PAL, isn’t turning out huge profits although some people paint the airline to be making tons of money.  For many years, I watched Brian Williams of NBC nightly news continuously reporting the slow death of airline companies in the U.S.  Other broadcast stations abroad also reported this succession of airline companies going down one after another.

Indeed airlines have the highest operating costs compared to other industries. Due to worldwide recession, international travel and exports are at their record lowest. Stability and profitability are beyond reach as people take less leisure trips – indubitably a luxury – so revenues remain at significant lows than during the better years.  The global financial crisis of the past and in recent times, 2008, caused all of these.

Yes, three years and several worldwide high-profile layoffs, business closures and money market meltdowns later, people are still wary of non-essential spending. Business travel slumped, as companies scaled back on spending in this area and in 2012, even import-export activities will suffer considerably.

The bottom line is the key to any profit-oriented company. Higher figures are essential, not for any sort of imaginary bragging rights, but because turning a profit (and the higher, the better, of course) is actually the raison d’être. This does not, however, take away from the other aspects, such as providing service in this case. Nevertheless, no business entity in its right mind would want to operate at a loss. Further, remaining barely in the black is a concept that just doesn’t make much sense.

With these in mind, what is PAL to do when faced with the various challenges? Like many other organizations that were or are in the same situation, the most simple-but-effective answer is: streamline. Among the results of this was Plan 14, formulated in 1998, in which the fleet would be reduced from 54 to 14 airplanes. The laying off of 5,000 employees (including 1,400 cabin crew) was an unfortunate but necessary consequence, as there would then be much more personnel than necessary.

At this point it is imperative to note that among the notable events of 1998 was the Asian Financial Crisis that wreaked havoc on many countries around the world, the Philippines included. At this time, PAL incurred PhP90 billion in liabilities, or PhP5 billion more than its assets. Needless to say, this was not a desirable state for the company to be in.

In addition, PAL is also looking to outsourcing for cost relief. In the same way that companies look towards lower expenditures, many operational components could be handled capably by contracted third parties. This entails relinquishing a certain amount of direct control however it promises benefits on the budget side compared to full vertical alignment. Constant evaluation ensures that things are done the way they should be and at a high satisfaction level.

Streamlining, whether by cutting operations, relying on outsourcing or other methods, can enable a company to stay afloat in a sea of troubles. It seems more than a little unfair to point a finger at PAL and say that it is representative of how Big Business in the Philippines casually tramples over the rights of workers.

Survival is the key; doing what is needed may often not be pretty, but going under is downright ugly.  Imagine the job loss if the company shuttered its operations.

Reforms at PAL should have come decades ago. There is no way to confirm it but the word from the inside is that many important personnel of PAL have gone wayward, getting enmeshed in unconventional forms of making money on the side through smuggling – a dangerous game such as it is since we are living in dangerous times.

On the other hand, certain career officials of PAL strive to keep these personnel in place – despite that many of them are political accommodations. That means those personnel were not wholly qualified nor competent to be in their present posts.

That’s the reason why no one cares if the company goes decrepit, its facilities are rotting and customers suffer beyond the airline’s shame. My friends and classmates have all left PAL for other airlines. All of them rose to high positions in Cathay, Lufthansa, Saudia, Cebu Pacific, Northwest, among many other airlines – you bet they should be very conscientious in their jobs or else they’d have been retrenched too.

Technology is at the heart of the human defense against major loss of life and valuables during disasters.  Behind technology certainly, is political will or the resolute determination of private enterprise to cooperate in social concerns.

There is a need to rethink the blueprint for the future.  It is bound to happen and it will happen. Unless humankind wants to waste in the wake of powerful calamities.

We encourage the Philippine Government, Asian Governments, combines like the United Nations, financial institutions like World Bank, Asian Development Bank, to support this milestone activity 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environment Summit in Manila from the remainder of 2009 up to 2010. The actual event takes place on April 8-15, 2010 at the Philippines’ Manila Hotel.

ANNUAL ECOLOGY CRISIS CONFERENCE

The Resource Recovery Movement will hold the first 2010 Hazards Mapping and Environment Summit (Eco 2010 Summit) in Manila, Philippines. This is ultimately borne about by the tremendous changing of the Philippine landscape and those of other countries in the Pacific Rim in the last few decades. All efforts towards risk mapping in relation to calamities and disasters in the past should now take into consideration the great shifts and transformations in land mass, the enormous amount of rainfall brought about by Climate Change and many new factors that were heretofore not factored into national and sub-national planning by governments as well as even by business establishments and non-government organizations.

Click this link to sign up: Join Resource Recovery Movement!

The 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environmental Summit (HMES) is intended to develop better approaches to mapping risks and dangers to communities in the Philippines and other countries with tropical climates. It takes a cue from the recent experience in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, notwithstanding the previous experiences in Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan where scores of people died due to unforeseen occurrences during the incidence of a natural disaster: earthquake, typhoon, tsunami and other calamities. The databasing, mapping and full coordination of efforts towards use and sharing of a full function GIS on hazards, volcanoes, water, flood, forests in the Philippines and Asia, vulnerability areas, liquefaction potential, crisis and hot spots is long due because of the long-running phenomenon of Climate Change in the planet. This is also significant in that the Philippines, among other countries, lies in the Pacific Rim of Fire where a large number of earthquake faults lie.

The most important value of the conference is to determine the plan and the cost of implementing such a plan to make the Philippines and other participating nations safer from increasingly hazardous calamities.

Note: The organizers reserve the right to make minor changes in the Conference details prior to the actual Event.

HMES 2010 Organizers

After the attack the military was not able to certify if they killed or arrested the said persons wanted for big rewards on their heads.  At once, my initial gut reaction was that due to the staging of the attack on a holy period for the Muslims, this will be responded with by no less than a Jihad. There was doubt among my friends, but me knowing Mindanao like the palm of my hand, I have no second thoughts about my forecast. Something is bound to happen soon and it will be big. Really big.  Let’s all be watchful. Terror will soon strike at the heart of the country. Whoever gave the order to allow the soldiers to stage the attack, must either be dumb, hard hearted, or is listed in someone’s blue book? There will be hell to pay.

Carie does not agree, as she says there is no sense to all this mad goings on:

Noynoy, Mar and Quislings at the height of Opportunism
Citizens Against Rebellion, Destabilization and Terrorism
www.caredt.blogspot.com

When Juan Ponce Enrile and the late Pres. Ferdinand Edralin Marcos decided that the ascent of the Communists and Socialists together with the avowed Centrists to government during the 1985-1986 highly volatile political environment was imminent, due to the defiance of some Marcos Loyalists, opportunists in Malacañang like Gen. Fabian C. Ver and his minions, the subterfuge of a strong faction in the United States Government, they decided to launch a plan to take over the insipient revolution in the country.  More about this article here…

It’s good enough that they commemorate the 40th day of the death of the late Madam Cory and gain some sort of redemption from their pain. But then, they had to go through the brouhaha of declaring they’re running Noynoy for president in 2010. I wonder when they will stop?

My friend carrie is seriously agonizing over something so profound and powerful. I can’t fault her. There are always two sides to a coin.  That she saw that manolo of a guy as a mutual friend was telling me, and the glib purveyor of borrowed schisms saying over national television that the cadaver was not given full state honors. And he was cut off by the television host. Quite a snap, but the slip showed. The opposition in a haphazard dream state, wanted to use the cadaver and coffin to either kill the madam Arroyo or throw her head first into Pasig River or have her run over by the mob or the mob’s hakot vehicles so they can take over. Intensely unnerving!!! To think that the family might have allowed that except for some cooler heads that prevailed. Civil society! Church, god-loving people! Pweeh!!!

dear allevi,

oy vey! how is the trip to italy? i’m mad at you, you left without saying goodbye and calling in the middle of the night to say you’ve been a week away, huh?!!?

and you’re back and you didn’t brung me choco, whaaaaat?!!?!

and i’m sitting at starbucks without anyone to talk to and suddenly this cute guy, maniac looking, is hitting on me, excuuuse me sir!  the thing inside my panties are not made for.. sheeeeet!

i’ve been counting sheep since you left and now arrived. done that, been doing that, still doing that, damn!!!

i cannot sleep.  it has been more than five days and i am still awake.  all i manage to do to appease my body is allow it a few minutes’ nap and i am startled awake again. then on to waking once more, i think i will die lev, i think that i am dying!

no one will be there to help me. no one will be there to care. no one will be there to console me, well, there’s you and him, but i cannot imagine how you and him could actually spend or waste time with me, whatever.

it’s only just because of this creep (i placed creep’s pic below). i love him. i love him so hard and so much it pains me so. the only one closest to me, is dead now. the creep’s hired him and eleven others via the liberal party to be his bright boys.

they served him and truly served him well. my closest one died in a freak accident in edsa during independence day!  aw shit! and double shit! not the police can help us his family to find out how that goddam thing happened.  where is the culprit? the police cannot say. i dare not ask.  i have nothing to give. the police. they suck, they’re shit!!!  no?  well i know only one or two that have a brain and heart in the right places. but the rest of them? they’re devils. demons.

anyway, creep affected me so much these past few days my chest was going to burst. what am i saying? i am depressed, i am in distress, i am exceedingly sad, terribly lonely, i am out of my wits, i am panicking, i am suicidal but am an obnoxious coward, i can try to kill myself but the greater agony of not dying scares me!!!

oh lev, what has come upon me?

 this creep like closest one, is beloved, beloved, too beloved to me.  nothing in this world can change that. closest one used to say, “kung tutuusin, boss ko si ninoy. pero natatakot ako mag presidente siya dahil kahit ang pamilya niya, kaibigan niya lalo na ang mga kaaway niya, ika nila benggador daw. kasi kapampangan, eh. dugong aso daw.”

 what the hell!!!  closest one could have been right or might have been wrong, too.  but i loved the creep!!!  he is the only one, well, aside from his brod in upsilon sigma phi who i truly worship.

 From the tales of closest one, when creep was still crawling this earth, he lived a full life. he had his brod, and his other brods in upsilon to look after him. of course, there were the politicians and the superpower united states government that had various and several interests in him. nasty, some or most of them.

but creep beloved one, really had the mettle of a great one. everywhere he went, he earned adulation. at 16 or thereabouts, after being drafted by the manila times, he was already writing for a u.s. newspaper and was even sent to cover significant foreign events.

beloved creepy was a genius, if you ask me. of course, that’s not the only thing that made me love him so much.

closest one never saw me grow up. he was dad to me, of course, he was also dad to many other children of different moms.

and closest one, was always with my beloved creep.  most of the time, anyways.  when the liberal party had no other need for his services.

one time, when creep and closest one were in a cebu hotel, closest one caught one of the osmenas and monching mitra both naked in one of the hotel rooms they took for that engagement.  creep said to closest one, let the incident just pass and it just did.

with a father. even a mom, since my mom left us because closest one spent more time with creep and friends than with family.

creep might even have gone to our house in the province, if i recall correctly. but i was too young at the time to even remember the vaguest semblance of a visit by someone like creep, a senator of the realm, an important figure. i was never one for politics, lev you know that.

what affects me, is killing me, about creep is something out of his politics or closest one’s politics, for that matter.

he is so forgotten and so unloved. of course there were so-so 2 million daw who went to the parade on his journey to the grave. but they might as well just as well been the ones that murdered him mercilessly on the tarmac of manila international airport. of course in a well-documented non-fiction book, the cousin of the wife of creep’s was the one together with a now-dead-and-buried psychopath general of marcos and a few (three or four) others including at least two from the us embassy were the planners of the murder of creep.

he put himself in jail, despite the protestations of brod.  but brod gave his family the money anyway for sustenance.  then brod let him go with the americans to the united states. to live in boston, massachussets.  and he got a supposed teaching or lecturing job. but brod he called from pay phones like a secret agent every now and then.  and then 100,000 dollars arrived each time. of course the calls were not only for the money.  creep also called brod to tell him of other things besides. problems, good news, gossip and intelligence, new things in the us, politics, politics, and more politics!!!  pwe!!!

whatever.  creep of course had that standing arrangement with brod that he will be the next president of the philippines.  surely that was a closely held secret. even the wife who back in quezon city never bothered to offer a glass of water or coffee to closest one and was always wearing her duster day in and day out, playing mah jong with her amigas y amigos, pa daan-daan lang sa bisita ni creep, closest one used to narrate. that wife, is the late wife now. but i bet she knew. she knew that the creep arranged with brod to become the next philippine chief executive.  na!!!

it’s a nice day outside always. cold.  wet.  very unsummerly already. it’s now rainy days. and my heart aches and spasms at remembering all the stuff about creep because his name is on television, radio, print, all of a sudden, just because i-don’t-bother-with-anyone-except-mah jong died. shit!!!  and double shiiittt!!!

i wonder where that dolly nazareno and monchy biazon are, of course joe quirino the greatest pinoy host of all time is now dead. but are dolly, monchy and the rest of mahjongeras still all alive? well dolly’s husband at least won himself a post in crame by a pung of dolly his wife. and pong won himself a chief of staffship at  do not begrudge why the fuck everyone’s all gaga about the wife of my beloved creep! i mean they go to all the lengths to use a dead body to kill or bangkokize, nepalize, if not, as the case maybe, venezualize a sitting president.

the ogres know a lot surely, the trolls, the leprechauns and the laman lupas. and they’re rousing luzipero and signor satanino from sleep (does he – she sleep anyway)?  they’re flashing that ugly demonic sign of el. aw sheet!  i’m truly bothered in my sleep, aren’t you lev dearest?

those greedy for power wannabes, they won’t let the country alone. look at that moustachioed man who wanted a piece of the money of the brod of beloved creep? he killed nida blanca that actress, for a slice of the pie c/o justina tantoco who went back to the killers to retrieve her calling cards. daft!!!  supercriminal their lot!!! and they stick together like glue, don’t they? it’s been all over the place, their wonderful marriage and loving alliance. of course, it’s been there for a long time, they were just hiding it. courtesy of manolingling the idiot savant of channel 2.

idn’t they notice, the heavens frowned the moment the ugly duck was paraded? and they’d started to froth in the mouth and spit-spew those devilish words of alsa-salsa, revo-reforma, overthrow of d’ etat!  ooovvvvvveeeeeeerrrr!!! sheeeeet!!! they must be good at tedious, extended masturbation, don’t you think?

of course the children of my beloved creep had to receive brod’s children at the funeral at that old church in intramuros. brod kept them all, wife and beloved creep as well as the children alive with 100,000 dollars every now and then. the family owed brod bigtime. what is to give the children of brod a little smile for showing up in the funeral?

 no one is saying anything outside of reconciliation. reconciliation for huwhaat? a joining of forces against gma? in a coup d’ etat? in making a bangkokish or caracasish or kathmanduish revolt? bullshit!!! fuck you coryistas! fuck you all to hell!!!

 why didn’t the madam of brod come to that funeral? she said of course that all is forgiven and that she was praying for the dead and soon to be buried (now actually deep sixed, thank god in heavens!!!)

so lev, can you find a way to tell all those nincompoops and coños, opportunistas, satanistas, demoños, demoñas, demoñitos, demoñitas, salvajes, quarajos, to stop spewing their bad odor, bad breath, stinking dramas, cheap slapstick, fucking unfamas award ham acting, cry-crying over teevee and saying they’ll take over this country?
carrie
if i meet that humdinger nymphomaniac whose roots are in creep’s wife (who wanted to divorce him since 1980) that was gaga and all agog over long penises, and who suffers from oedipalian disease — always wanting to have sex with very old men (how dare!!!) shit me not but i’ll clobber her to the ground!!!  follow your fucking mama to hell, i’d say!!!
i can’t sleep. because you dare not give me rest. you dare to disturb my peace. the wife of beloved creep used to say, i am cory. i am ngo.
i say to them: well fuck you and your fanatics!!! i am the people, i am the country!!!

Long ago, armies were born one after the other. Wars came and went. Today, people have come to respect the peace. Order. Neutrality. But the acts of certain people threatening the fabric of stability has aroused the fighting stance amongst citizens. Thus is an army born. If there is a consolation, at least, this army thinks happily about being in, and fighting on, the side of government. If you had a chance to brush elbows with these civilian warriors, you would think they were just going to a picnic. They were all smiles. Sacrifice awaits ahead of them. They would go on days without any food after their provisions are gone. It is expensive to sustain an army. Still they are all go-go for it. Good luck Suluanons! God Be With You!!! Here’s hoping you catch the biggest bandits of them all!!!

OH MY GOD! SHE AND HER BEST FRIEND(S) KIDNAPPED AND ARE HOLDING THEM HOSTAGE!!!

Mr. Rick Hard Gordon is going to be president, or so he had projected.

He is going to be the Hero of the Hour, like Magsaysay, hugging the corpse of a victim of violence…

Aw sheeeerrrrt. It’s all just falquing drama but the drama has gone haywire!

Watch the movie:

The ICRC kidnapping that does not look like a real kidnapping case happened in this manner: The abu suya in Mindanao are mere paper tigers and extras. They are not the real deal. First, the ICRC were asked to avail of security personnel. They refused. When the ICRC were kidnapped, they just allegedly finished calling on the Sulu Province Red Cross head, the Vice Gov of Sulu at the Provincial Capitol. The kidnappers were in five motorcycles. They kidnapped the ICRC people inside the Provincial Capitol compound. Three were identified with at least one  former provincial jail guard, and his two relatives. Two other motorbikes were identified with the Philippine… M…! Holy God the Father Almighty!!!

The kidnappers brought the hostages to Indanan and hid them there. The Vice Gov later visited the hostages in the supposed wilderness of Indanan, but they were just inside the farm cum soy sauce (toyo) factory of the Vice Gov of Sulu in the suburbs of Indanan! Holy Mother of God in Heaven!!!

When the Vice Gov was asked for a small report-briefing by the Gov of Sulu, she suddenly developed so-called severe stomach pains, and supposedly asked to be treated in Jolo clinic. Then suddenly she flew the coupé to Zamboanga City on the guise again of stomach pains!?! After a while, the Vice Gov of Sulu was in Manila still being treated for stomach pains, presumably!!! Wowowow!!!

Now ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Barack Obama, Red Cross and Red Crescent, at the time that the Vice Gov was in Manila, there was rumor in the intelligentsia that ransom was being negotiated, how coincidental, no?!!!

Secretaries of Interior and Defense went to Zamboanga for a conference with the troops. The Gov of Sulu suggested to use community participation. When about two thousand former and active MNLF armed civilians appeared from the woodwork, the Marines disappeared and the abu suya kept running and running with the hostages.

Then a twist in the story develops:

Ms. Cezzz Drilon says that now Indonesians are involved in the kidnapping of the ICRC workers! Whooooaaaa!!!

All the while, the abu suya were being constricted by the constantly redeploying, moving government forces and civilian actors in the anti-ICRC kidnapping campaign.

Then later, after a few days, Ms. Cezzz Drilon placed the hostages in the limelight together with a dubious taped interview with Hal Vader Parad, probably her long lost uhhhmmmm, with the hostages saying that they are going to die!!! Help us!!! We are going to die!!!

And Hal Vader Parad saying in fearful sentences that the military should withdraw!!! The military should withdraw!!!

Hal Vader apparently does not mention that he is more afraid of the heavily armed citizens of Sulu that are pursuing him. There are two thousand of them as of last count. Hal Vader is hoping to the Lord Al’lah in heaven while smoking his shabu pipe, and ingesting other forms of drugs, that the MNLF will come and rescue him ala Steven Seagal with an army of around two thousand as well. (God forbid that I die! Hal Vader keeps praying!)

It becomes very transparent that Ms. Cezzz Drilon is now the mouthpiece of Hal Vader, long lost midnight confrere. Producer of tiny, tiny small talk in the moutainside Sulu Resort Hotels.

The Vice Gov and her boss, Rick Hard Gordon are no longer in the limelight and the ICRC hostages keep mumbling they are in terrible danger. Danger my ass!!!

They appear to have agreed to be kidnapped it seems. Now they fear for their lives!!!

And in the sides, the government has been losing millions of hard to get pesos in these times of crisis!

Something smells!!! Something terribly fishy and foul and pungent and ugly in Sulu!!! Someone’s gotta investigate this as soon as possible!!! Isn’t anybody concerned for the lives of those people kidnapped day in and day out in Mindanao, the ICRC workers’ notwithstanding?

Damn you Red Cross!!!

Damn you Vice Gov of Sulu!!!

Damn you Marings!!!

May the falquing sumsabitches lot of you burn in hell!!!

September 25, 2008 at 8:33 am

 

Assalamu alaikum

Dear sir/Madam,

My name is dadapeer from india i living in nehru nagar the state of (TAMILNADU) hear having lot of poor muslims and we have no mosque in our area, and having unmarried womens, so i expect you to help us for poor peoples, and build a mosque.

Thanking you

 

Regards
Dada peer.M

Madurai.

Calling on His Excellency Dr. Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Turki, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, calling also on His Excellency Amb. Abdul Rajab Azzarouq of Libya (I’m a good friend of Joel – Jallaludin de los Santos), His Excellency Prince Bandar bin Sultan, His Excellency Prince Turki al Faisal, and all other kindhearted Muslims.

Please extend any kind of assistance, modest or otherwise, to the people of Dadapeer of Tamilnadu so they can have a decent Mosque of their own.

As Dadapeer says,

Thanking you!!!

Al’lah Bless you!!!

More power to you All!!!