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Some
guys at Philippine Airlines (PAL) are quietly crunching
numbers for the flag carrier’s possible return to the
Middle East. Here’s why.
One,
PAL’s downgrading to category 2 by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) will translate to less business in
the American market even as PAL president Jaime Bautista
is, of course, doing all he can to have the FAA decision
revised.
Two, the
Middle East is using all those nice and plentiful
petrodollars to build cities, refineries, bridges, and
what have you. To cite one example, Saudi Arabia is
building four super cities in the next 10 years and that
means hiring foreign workers, including those from the
Philippines.
As
everybody knows, PAL used to have direct flights to
Riyadh and regular flights to Europe with a stopover in
Dubai. These were stopped because they were no longer
deemed profitable.
Interestingly, about 20,000 overseas Filipino workers
couldn’t get back right away to work in the Middle East
after their 2007 Christmas vacation because the three
airlines (read: all non-Filipino) servicing the
Manila-Middle East route couldn’t handle the demand.
Did you
know 1:
Those
T-shirts used by Agriculture Secretary Arturo Yap in his
provincial sorties are bought in Divisoria. He got them
in different colors and haggled to have the embossed DA
logo thrown in for free.
So far,
he’s got a dozen (read: you get a better price when you
buy in bulk), most of them in green. But, hey, he’s got
one in red, just in case he has to attend a birthday
party.
Did you
know 2:
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.
doesn’t lose his cool even when he has to explain for
the nth time that his primary job is to make sure that
inflation (read: the price of goods) doesn’t rise or
fall too sharply.
Then
again, Say Tetangco is open to teaching after his term
ends in 2011, when he turns 58. Oh, he also wants to
improve his golf handicap, which admittedly isn’t as
good as that of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.
Did you
know 3:
Major Gen. Geary Barias, who is the National Police
regional head for NCR is launching this Monday, the
return of the stick or batuta as part of a beat
cop’s standard equipment. The way Barias sees it, a
policeman must only use a gun as a last resort; even
then, the policeman must shoot to maim rather than to
kill.
Since he
already has 4,000 batutas in stock, Barias is buying
another 5,000 made of rattan.
As far
as president and chief executive officer Winston Garcia
is concerned, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)
is on track in expanding the wireless automated
processing system for members. Right now, there are 196
kiosks all over the country and 95 more (read: 23 in
different government agencies and 72 in local government
units) will be in place by end-2008.
As
everybody knows, the setup works pretty much like an
ATM, where members can transact business such as
withdraw their monthly pensions and apply for housing
loans without going all the way to the GSIS head
office. |
