This warning came after one of PAL’s catering trucks which was about to exit PAL’s Inflight Center (IFC) on MIAA Road was reportedly blocked by protesting former employees at close to 6am on October 29. Wielding night sticks, planks with spikes and barbed wire, the protesters harrassed the driver and set aflame a carton box in front of the truck to prevent thevehicle from exiting the compound.
A standoff ensued between protesters and PAL guards stationed at IFC’s Gate 1. Eventually, the catering truck and PAL’s shield-wielding guards retreated. One guard, Russel Tiongson, was rushed to San Juan de Dios Hospital after suffocating from the toxic fumes emitted by the burning box with kerosene.
“We decry this continuing harassment of our drivers and employees. PAL has every reason to protect airline equipment, its workers and those of its service providers from threats or actual physical harm. The Constitution guarantees PAL’s right to free and unhampered access to and from its own facility,” the airline said in a statement.
The PAL management has ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the incident. It will also determine what legal actions to take against protesters. It also denied allegations that PAL hired “goons” to disperse protesters. “Given their [ex-PAL workers”] propensity to make up stories, it could even be surmised that the so-called ‘goons’ were actually hired by the protesters themselves to make PAL look bad in the public eye. The timing, in fact, is suspicious since there are thousands of PAL passengers going to the airport during this peak travel season. The commotion would certainly catch the attention of the riding public,” the company added.
On Friday, PAL reported that more than half of all former workers have received their separation checks.
Close to 60 percent of the more than 2,300 former employees of the three outsourced PAL offices—including former union members participating at the protest camp-site in front of the PAL Inflight Center—lined up at seven distribution points to collect their separation checks.
(Lenie Lectura)
