PAL loses test case against foreign poaching of pilots

PHILIPPINE Airlines has lost a test case against a pilot for breaching contract obligations, the same charge it is considering against 25 pilots who walked off their jobs last week without giving notice.

The Court of Appeals’ Seventh Division last week denied the airline’s petition to reverse a Makati Court’s June 2008 decision to dismiss its complaint for civil damages against its former pilot, Capt. Antonio Halagueña, on a technicality.

PAL had sought P1.2 million from  Halagueña for allegedly failing to comply with the terms of a training agreement he had signed with the airline.

But the appellate court noted that the airline filed the suit seeking payment of the balance on the pilot’s training on May 9, 2005, or almost two years after Halagueña’s wife paid the airline P401,480 representing her husband’s full monetary obligations under the training agreement.

By failing to assert its rights in a time, the airline in effect waived its right to collect the supposed balance, Associate Justice Normandie Pizarro said. Associate Justices Amelita Tolentino and Ruben Ayson agreed.

PAL hired Halagueña on March 11, 2002, and offered him training that all pilots who wished to operate its newer aircraft must have.

Halagueña accepted the offer and went under training until May 19, 2002, and later qualified as captain of an Airbus A320. But he signed the training agreement containing the terms and conditions of the training program only on March 22, 2003.

More than one year after completing the training, Halagueña failed to report for his flight and reserve pilot assignments and instead resigned on Oct. 31, 2003, and moved to Vietnam Airlines.

On Nov. 24, 2003, PAL received from Halagueña’s wife the P401,480 as payment for his monetary obligations under the training agreement.

But the airline claimed that this was a breach of their agreement. and on Jan. 15, 2004 it declared Halagueña guilty of abandonment and terminated his employment effective Oct. 30, 2003.

The airline later demanded that the pilot pay the balance of P252,951 representing the expenses for his training plus 14-percent interest a year.

It also demanded reimbursement for its expenses in training another pilot amounting to P1.05 million.

When Halagueña refused, the airline filed a damage suit before the Makati Regional Trial Court.

While he admitted that he had training from March 11 to May 19, 2002, Halagueña denied that it was for the development of his skills as a pilot or for him to be able to operate the airline’s newer aircraft.

He said the training was only for the purpose of determining whether he still had the skills he already had as a an Airbus captain before his re-employment.

He also denied that he intentionally did not report for his flight assignments, but that he chose to resign after receiving information from friends that some of his co-workers were out to destroy him.

He then returned to the airline the P401,480 as a gesture of good faith, and considering that it was the same amount that PAL had asked from his wife through its representative, Capt. Johnny Andrews.

According to Halaguena’s wife Patricia, Capt. Andrews assured her that her husband would be cleared if the amount was reimbursed. Halaguena is now chief pilot of Zest Air. –Rey E. Requejo, Manila Standard Today