2 planes off to Thailand
5 busloads of Filipinos head to Chiang Mai
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 01:35:00 12/01/2008
Filed Under: Air Transport, Civil unrest, Bangkok Crisis
MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 4) Cebu Pacific is sending a 179-seater plane to Thailand to pick up and bring home its stranded passengers there, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said Monday.
He said Cebu Pacific flight 5J-932 would leave at 9 p.m. for U-tapao military airbase, some two hours from Bangkok.
"It will get there after three and a half hours, maybe after midnight," he said.
The Cebu Pacific flight will be the second to leave for stranded Manila-bound passengers; the other is the 427-seater Philippine Airlines (PAL) which is scheduled to leave at 2 p.m. (not 5 p.m. as earlier stated) for Chiang Mai, this Monday. It is expected to get there at 5 p.m. and return here at around 11 p.m.
DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said the Cebu Pacific flight would be back in Manila around 5 a.m. Tuesday with its first batch of passengers.
"Non-CebPac passengers will be accommodated if seats are available. Philippine embassy will bus the passengers from hotels to Bitec Center in Bangkok and onward to U-tapao," Cristobal said.
Earlier on Monday, Cristobal said holders of Cebu Pacific tickets would not have to pay anything as the DFA would shoulder the cost of ferrying them by land to the point of departure.
Edith Villanueva, a businesswoman from Negros Occidental who, with her husband, is among those stranded in Thailand, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) in a telephone interview that five to six buses are bringing the PAL passengers to Chiang Mai.
"We are all very eager to get home," Villanueva said, president of the Sugar Industry Foundation Inc., said.
Joining them on the bus is Philippine Ambassador to Bangkok Antonio Rodriguez, she said.
Villanueva and her husband, Jose Ma., president of First Farmers Holding Corp. in Talisay City, went to Thailand on Tuesday last week.
In a separate interview, Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog confirmed Conejos's information.
"We are going to mount a flight for Cebu Pacific passengers," she said, adding that the airline company is finalizing the approvals needed for the permits of the flight.
Asked if Cebu Pacific was committed to bring all Cebu Pacific ticket holders home, Iyog said: "It depends if we can get a hold of them. Our commitment is we will send a flight over [to Thailand] to bring them home."
Passengers of Cebu Pacific have complained about the delay in Cebu Pacific’s flight back to the Philippines.
Spouses Naplin and Maria Nora Narzoles arrived in Thailand on Tuesday, at the height of the anti-government protests there, for a short vacation. They were scheduled to fly back home past midnight Saturday, but their Cebu Pacific flight has been cancelled.
"We need to go home. May trabaho kami [We have jobs in Manila]. We cannot stay here forever," Maria Nora, an accountant, said in a long-distance interview with INQUIRER.net.
"Maganda ang hotel pero gusto na naming makauwi [The hotel is nice but we want to go home]," said Naplin, an administrative officer for a school in the Philippines.
Maria Nora said she was heartened by the announcement that Philippine Airlines was going to send an airplane to fetch its stranded passengers.
"It's understandable that PAL tends to its passengers first, but what about us?" she asked.
Maria Nora said she was told by PAL office personnel in Bangkok that she and her husband have to shell out 7,000 baht each for a ticket to Manila.
Naplin said Cebu Pacific has not attended to the needs of its stranded passengers.
"No advisory was released except for the cancellation of their flights. The option given to us was either to rebook and reroute within 15 days or request for refund and to call their call-center service in the Philippines," he said.
"Since we are also running out of cash, contacting Cebu Pacific in the Philippines is very costly so we asked our relatives in the Philippines to do the rebooking for us. All of the rebooked dates were cancelled. Since everything here is indefinite, we are very disappointed that the airline has not made an effort to contact nor give alternative
solutions to its passengers," he added.
Maria Nora said that while the other airlines of other similarly stranded passengers had contact details made available to their clients at their hotel (The Imperial Queen's Park Hotel), Cebu Pacific did not provide the service.
She said she has met in the hotel and in the Philippine embassy more than 10 Cebu Pacific passengers under similar circumstances.
"Cebu Pacific does not have an office here. Their partner company here cannot give us a rebook date. We get a text and an e-mail message about the cancellation of the flights, but we need to know when we can go home," Naplin said.
Naplin also wrote INQUIRER.net clarifying that the free hotel accommodations he and his wife and other similarly stranded tourists have had at The Imperial Queen's Park Hotel were not provided by the airline, but by the Thailand Tourism Authority. Also, he said, it was arranged by the Philippine embassy there, and again not by the airline.
"When we went back to the PAL office this [Sunday] afternoon and told them of the contingency announcement of the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] for the stranded Filipino passengers, we were told to wait until tomorrow [Monday] for further announcement. We just hope that we will be included in the list," he said.
PAL plane to airlift Pinoys expected in Chiang Mai by 5 p.m.
Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas Bureau
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