Both sides in PAL row armed with court orders

FORMER employees of Philippine Airlines protesting their dismissal squared off with police Wednesday, who were sent to dismantle their camp near the company’s In-Flight Center at the airport, but both sides were armed with court orders.

“More than 100 policemen were deployed to dismantle the more than 20 tents set up by the protesters and disperse the picket line,” said Alnem Pretencio, vice president of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association.

The policemen were enforcing the court order issued by Pasay Regional Trial Court Judge Edwin Ramizo prohibiting the camp-out over a 72-hour period, group president Gerry Rivera said.

But on Wednesday, Pasay Judge Maria Rosario Ragaza, who had assumed jurisdiction over the case, called for a status quo on the same free ingress-egress case filed by PAL management against its former employees.

“In view of this status quo order, Palea’s peaceful protest camp continues,” Rivera told the court sheriff and policemen.

After a few hours of heated negotiations, the two camps declared a deadlock and the protest camp remained untouched.

Asked how long the laid off workers would stay, Pretencio said: “For as long as it takes or until we got our jobs back.”

Some 2,400 of the company’s ground crew were laid off Oct. 1 following the airline’s program to outsource its non-flight operations.

Two days before their dismissal, the ground employees reported to their posts but refused to work, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

The union on Wednesday condemned the attempt at dispersing their protest camp.

“The power and money of [airline owner] Lucio Tan has influenced the Labor Department, the Office of the President, the Supreme Court and now, as clear as day, the [National Police],” Rivera said. –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today