Philippines Airlines: A sign of Filipino management failure

Last Tuesday's wild cat strike by the employees of Philippine Airlines has been depressing and distressful to its passengers, foreigners and locals.

What happened here, what is going on?

Let us study PAL's history for a minute:

Philippine Airlines is one of oldest airlines in Asia, established in 1941. It is quite good in the early days. But due to the Asian Financial crisis in 1997, PAL almost hit rock bottom. Poor management, overspending, and frequent re-shuffling of its employees created huge losses amidst together with the Financial Crisis. One of the biggest well known strike were held in 1998 led PAL to shut down its operations. Foreign businesses, stakeholders, and investors wanted to save the airline but were turned off by this frequent labor disputes.

PAL has been looking for some strategic partners earlier up to now. Before, Cathay Pacific has shown interest, but the airline is still weak from its knees, and its management tried again to manage it itself, and acquired a big loan from SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)  to continue its operations and hopefully make some profit. But there is a catch, this agreement (they call it 'receivership') will end on 2007. SEC is like the 'umbilical cord' to PAL. PAL rebounded and increased its routes to major airports around the world.

Year 2007 ended and now 'all hell broke loose.' Mismanagement, overspending is there again (PAL is buying a lot of airplanes wherein they are short of pilots, crew, and staff), and frequent disputes from its employees, in which they formed a union called PAL Employees Association (PALEA).

PALEA's demand are simple, better pay, good benefits and job security. But PAL cannot give these as it is trying to recover its losses earlier. It was a 'stale-mate.'

Frequent labor disputes are present from then on, and PAL has decided mass contractualization of its employees. In 2010, some of PAL pilots left their jobs permanently without any information.

Now we all know its story. As an ordinary passenger what we will do then? I think you know that already. By avoiding PAL at all costs to avoid any delays in your schedule. This will be a continuous cycle until a major revamp has been established. The company is in distress and it will take some time and effort to bring back its reputation. Other airlines offer cheaper fares anyway.

This is a sign that a Filipino cannot manage a company in its entirety. That is why other nationalities like Chinese, Europeans, Americans, even Indians are preferred in managing day to day operations of a business.
A major installation like an airport requires utmost care and precision. If someone could not do it - then leave. Better than making matters worse for thousands of passengers.

Confession of a Filipino Meteorologist

I remember the early days, when I was a young kid. Watching nature wreak havoc outside of our mansion. It is awe inspiring that this force, heavy gusts of wind, sharp droplets of rain and small hail, can cause immediate destruction.

The Philippines has experienced it all, and the typhoons will come more and more.

Such fascination led to me to go to trips locally and around the world. I visited the PAGASA office sometime maybe thrice, I observed how they worked, and befriended Dr. Nilo.

You thought he is just an ordinary bloke, but some of his peers call him the 'human barometer.' There was this one time we were drinking, and he told he will leave early. I asked him why, and he told that it will rain hard, I checked outside and the weather seems to be fine. It did rain afterwards, and I called him and asked his secret:

"It is no secret, keen observation and respecting nature and incorporating into our daily habit is what I do. Just stand outside and observe the sky, the wind, the raindrops, all of these are taken into account. You know already we do not have expensive high tech equipment. So me and some of my colleagues use ourselves 'our own bodies' for this."

"We are sacrificing ourselves here, since we have no equipment to gather data, we go outside to gather it ourselves. That is battling intense heat, typhoons, we check also for air quality and even rain quality, etc. etc. We told everyone that machines can do this, we cannot play our lives with nature. I actually asked someone to do it for me with my whole salary as compensation - no one dared to do it. Nobody has the passion to do what I do. And what I asked is to OBSERVE! A basic scientific methodology/process."

"By the way, I have to leave. You know already why, because of the stress at work before, my health deteriorated. I have lots of medicines to buy which is hard to budget. My family is getting worried too and I have 2 kids, I want the best for them. My flight is next week going to Japan. They told me they will set up some tsunami warning beacon there. And they recognize my talents and skills, I won't let this opportunity escape."

"Don't worry. I will still interpret the climate data gathered from the sensors we installed around the country and nearby coastlines. I was ashamed last time that we are using an old hygrometer from the 1960's. That is why the readings are always 'normal.' It is good you funded these new sensors, now we are able to interpret the weather more accurately. I can even check it online."

"Take care always, I'll send you an email when I arrive."

Now, we have to brace ourselves. Even though we have the latest technology, if there are no people who are passionate enough in this profession, there is no way we can predict our own weather.

Avoiding sickness and taking care of your body (continued)

The main problem with the Philippine medical system is the commercialization of the medical profession.

Everything must have a price. Gone are the days that they will give you proper TLC to be healthy. Now, being healthy is equivalent to having money.

Let us be aware that if someone is in the medical profession, he/she must practice it and appropriate support must be given. If I am a nurse, I will practice my profession even outside hospital premises. provided I must be compensated as well.

The knowledge and skills that I earned must be shared to the family and community. Especially in regards to health.

So if I see something that is unhealthy, I will advise others to clean it as per my supervision. Why cannot we do that?

Now I tell you, there are lots of doctors and nurses who do not have jobs here in the Philippines. Some are working with low salary, and some are working for free!

That is complete BS!

I failed on this one folks, I will do my best to give our doctors and nurses a high paying job. Let them have jobs whether in local or abroad. it is their job to take care of someone who sick, so if they are idle, what they have learned will be useless.

Remember, health is WEALTH!

Avoiding sickness and taking care of your body

I am not feeling well.

I went to a hospital and the doctor gave some antibiotics to me and he told me to rest.

That I did and I felt better.

Being sick is the worst thing that can happen to a human being. Imagine other organisms are 'eating away' your immune system, until you cannot function well and die. Medical science has made great strides as well as mistakes - either we are cured or murdered inch by inch.

Study your body for a minute, look in front of the mirror. Check any peculiar marks. What I have right now is dandruff, and some small skin lesions. That is normal if you are under stress like me.  I have a small beer belly, that I am trying to remove by diet and exercise.

Some people who have some money go to a hospital or clinic. By all means do it while you still can. Maintaining good health is the hard part. After getting well, surely, you will go back to your habit again. Overwork, stress, smoking, eating too much, booze, or drugs...

Your body is like a punching bag by diseases if you continue this kind of unhealthy lifestyle.

So far I do not care on what you do to your body, but I am worried about the environment you are living on. Simply put, if you are not taking care of your body in a satisfactory way, then you are a 'disease' waiting to burst and explode with all those contaminated spores contaminating the air, and will infect another human being.

In the early days, if you are not taking of yourself well, if you have a certain disease. You are killed, instantly. Sometimes they quarantine you, but some people will think of a fast way to end their misery.

Thank God Filipinos are somewhat clean. Some of my foreign guests are telling me that even homeless or poor people take a bath regularly. But the problem is their homes. Even though you take a bath 5 times a day, your home is filthy and reeking of garbage water. It is useless.

(to be continued...)

What do I have to do to improve my country? (continued 2)

Battling poverty in the Philippines I think will be a 'Pyrrhic Victory.'

Look at other Asian countries like Vietnam, Japan, Korea, they have these great wars, many of their citizens died. This great loss, prompted them to get back on their feet on their own, and became more industrialized and politically stable.

All success comes with a cost.

People Power is nothing short of a Philippine failure, 'too much kindness.' It is about time someone must wake up.   I am fed up with it, seeing that boy earlier that I helped. Hell, there is more, selling sampaguitas, sniffing glue, prostitution, a child who quickly lost its innocence, is totally not acceptable.

The greatest thief, is someone who steals the playtime of a child.

During my work stint abroad, my friend told me that if the Philippines were in a state of civil war, where would I be. I told him that, I will go back to the Philippines, I want to take care of my family.

He told that I am stupid. Why would you go there, they probably died already and looted all your belongings by the military or looters. Transportation will be a mess, everything will be in chaos.

He is correct. Still I tried to reason out, I will still come back, I have to, I really do. But all things will be put to halt there. And military intervention from the US will surely be there to maintain peace and order.

He does not know that I have to come back to know the state of my country. You know, If you had a car accident, you will check your car, what is the damage, etc. Same thing there.

That is the only way for now. Look at what is happening to Mindanao, they still cannot get full control of it. Why? Because it is the food basket of the nation. I always tell the president to avoid any conflicts or skirmishes there. They don't know that the food they eat comes from there.

A man hungry for power does not know what real hunger means.

So again. let me conclude this, we will never beat poverty because we are 'too kind.'

What do I have to do to improve my country? (continued..)

So I healed the boy's parents for P100 and for 5 hours of my time. While you guys wasted a month or a year studying all this crap in front of me wasting paper, electricity, and money without helping a single person yet?

What a complete BS.

This is not a Pay it Forward scheme like in the movie. This is a more realistic scenario, just help someone, by devoting some money and effort, and make that person help another person, replicating or increasing the favor done to him.

The story of a the Good Samaritan in the Bible is nothing short of an incomplete story.

We human beings are forgetting the 'sense of gratitude.' Someone helped us, in our own way we must help someone too. Consider it an obligation, not a sense of kindness.

As part of the society, we must learn to help each other continuously, so that we can prosper.

In the Philippines, it does not work that way. Everyone is selfish. Now that is the challenge I tell you, can you do what I did just now? Devoting my own money and time in an instant. I didn't give money to UNICEF (Although I gave them too in the early days) or some charitable institution, because the help will surely not reach in time.

Too much planning will ruin everything. Time is running, a person is starving right now.

On this age of technology, sending money is also fast. Why human beings are thinking slower, isn't it because when we press the button the computer will think for us? How fast can we press or click that button is still up to us.

(continued 2...)

Simple things performed are inspirational

I would like to thank the staff of   http://www.inspirationalstories.com for publishing my story online. 


You keep me inspired to write more and more.


Link of that story is below:


http://www.inspirationalstories.com/my-beloved-teacher/