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Govt pulls out of PAL talks with pilots


Believing that the worst is over, Malacañang on Thursday announced it will no longer broker negotiations between Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the 25 pilots whose resignations seriously affected the flag carrier's operations. At a press briefing, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the government decided to limit its role to monitoring the talks between PAL management and the pilots after the flag carrier made commitments that will address some of its problems. "The government will now let the Philippine Airlines and the pilots settle their differences through the promised dialogue, and for that reason the government will just monitor the dialogue between the two," said Lacierda. Since Monday, various Cabinet officials have been holding meetings with the PAL management and the representatives of the pilots. PAL commitments According to Lacierda, PAL management made the following commitments to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC): to submit and publicize the revised schedule of flight routes; not to transfer Airbus 320 pilots to AirPhil Express, and to continue its dialogue with the 25 pilots to resolve the issues between them. "Obviously they are able to resolve among themselves now. One of the issues of the pilots was they were being indiscriminately transferred to Air Philippines and so it affected their security of tenure in Philippine Airlines. Since there is a promise from Philippine Airlines management not to do that, at least they can very well discuss it among themselves," said Lacierda. He added there is no longer a need for the government to intervene in the talks because the PAL management has addressed one factor in the mass resignation of the pilots — the flight schedule. "The prejudice to the riding public has been diminished, if not eliminated," Lacierda said. Lacierda said there will be continued formal and informal communication between the government and representatives of the two parties to keep the government updated about the status of the talks. He added that if the talks break down and inter-company disputes again affect the riding public, the government has already several options to consider. He refused to disclose what these options were, but reiterated that a government takeover is not among them. The resignations of the 25 pilots, who reportedly moved to foreign airlines, caused several flights to be canceled or rescheduled last week. PAL announced on Tuesday that its flight schedules were back to normal after larger aircraft were used to accommodate passengers affected by the flight cancellations. No transfer of pilots DOTC undersecretary for public information Dante Velasco said government intervention was no longer necessary because of the commitments PAL made to its pilots. A radio dzBB report quoted the PAL management's statement as saying, "PAL shall not transfer (PAL Airbus) A320 pilots to AirPhil." In a separate interview with GMANews.TV, PAL president Jaime Bautista said: "Matagal na naman kasi iyon, when we transferred a few pilots to AirPhil. Pero ngayon, hindi na kami maglilipat (That was a long time ago, when we transferred a few pilots to Airphil. But starting now, we won't be transferring pilots)." The two other commitments of PAL are the submission of a revised flight schedule to the Civil Aeronautics Board and the holding of "continuing dialogues with the PAL pilots." The PAL management did not mention anything about the fate of the 25 pilots who earlier resigned without giving the required notice to the airline. The pilots reportedly resigned after the PAL management, since January, began declaring some of their colleagues as "redundant" employees to transfer them to AirPhil, where they would allegedly get lower salaries and no benefits. –with Mark Dalan Merueñas/VVP/KBK, GMANews.TV

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