Filipinos don’t assert their rights
I took the early morning Cebu Pacific flight from Davao City to Manila Tuesday.
When my plane arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) 3 terminal, the passengers were told to go down the plane onto the airport ramp.
Then, we were made to climb a flight of stairs to the terminal tube.
I pitied Nelly Castro, a fellow passenger who could barely walk.
Nobody among the Cebu Pacific employees at the airport thought of bodily carrying her down the plane.
Inside Naia 3 terminal, I saw Castro on a wheelchair, finally, assisted by a member of the Cebu Pacific ground crew on the ramp.
I cringed when I saw how a forklift nearly bumped into the disabled woman’s wheelchair which was making its way into a maze of cargo and vehicles under the plane’s wings.
Why were my fellow passengers and I deprived of the comfort of using the airport tube?
Why were we made to get off the plane, walk to the ramp and then go up another flight of stairs to reach the tube?
The plane could have discharged its passengers directly into the tube.
I asked the Cebu Pacific Naia 3 supervisor on duty about these concerns.
He told me that the tube was not working.
Passengers are required to pay terminal fees. Where do these fees go?
Isn’t the money supposed to be spent for the upkeep of the airport?
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Yes, Cebu Pacific charges lower fares than its rival, Philippine Airlines, but it gives lousy service.
Is that how it should be—low fare but lousy service?
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My fellow passengers regarded the inconvenience as “just one of those things.”
But my companions, Matt and Michelle, both Americans, were surprised why the other passengers could grin and bear the inefficient ways of the airline and the airport management when they had every right to complain.
I told Matt that many Filipinos don’t assert their rights, that’s why we continue to have an inefficient and corrupt government.
In fairness, though, President Noy is trying to address the twin problems of inefficiency and corruption.
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Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the presiding officer of the impeachment court trying Chief Justice Renato Corona, made a statement worthy of his lofty position: Cold facts, not surveys, will decide whether Corona is guilty or innocent.
A recent Pulse Asia survey showed that 47 percent of the people think Corona is guilty of all the accusations brought against him.
“If we use surveys to convict a person charged in courts, then we do not need the courts. All we have to do is conduct surveys whenever somebody is charged,” said the Harvard Law School graduate.
Not all judges have the same mentality as Enrile.
The judge who tried Hubert Webb and company in the Vizconde rape-massacre case was influenced by the mob which asked for the blood of the accused.
For that judge’s injudicious decision, she was awarded a seat in the Court of Appeals.
She is probably manifesting her brand of justice at the appellate court.
