BANGKOK CRISIS
Over 400 Filipinos finally home
By Jerome Aning, Cynthia Balana, Noel Adlai O. Velasco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:23:00 12/01/2008
Filed Under: Bangkok Crisis, Air Transport
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 3) The first group of Filipinos stranded in Thailand arrived in Manila late Monday onboard a special Philippine Airlines flight.
They were so relieved at being back in the Philippines they erupted in cheers as the PAL plane (Flight PR 733) landed at the Centennial Terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at around 11:30 p.m.
“We are so happy and relieved to be home,” Edith Villanueva, Sugar Industry Foundation Inc. president, said in a telephone interview, shortly after their arrival.
Villanueva and her husband, Jose Ma. Villanueva, president of First Farmers Holding Corp. in Talisay City, were among the 432 PAL passengers, 417 of whom were Filipinos, who returned on the first rescue plane sent to pick up stranded Filipinos since Thai anti-government protestors shut down the international and domestic airports in Bangkok, halting air travel.
Villanueva said that as the stewardess announced that they had landed at the NAIA, the Filipinos on board broke out in loud applause.
“It’s a shared exuberance. Everybody was smiling at each other on the plane and at the airport,” she said.
The Filipinos first had to endure a 10-hour bus ride from Bangkok to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai where the PAL plane was waiting for them at 5 p.m.
Chiang Mai is the home province of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the venue of the ASEAN summit scheduled for this month.
Sigh of relief
At 5 a.m. Monday (6 a.m. in Manila), 10 buses with the Filipino passengers rolled out of Bangkok for Chiang Mai.
Although tired, the Filipino passengers heaved a sigh of relief that they would finally get home and be reunited with their loved ones after five restless days in Bangkok.
The last two buses, one of which carried Philippine Ambassador to Thailand Antonio Rodriguez, left Bangkok at 7 a.m. on Monday.
“We saw the beautiful side of Filipinos. Everybody was helping each other,” Edith Villanueva said
Villanueva praised the work of the Philippine embassy and the friendliness of the PAL staff in managing the repatriation of the more than 400 Filipinos there.
“And you could not have been stranded in a better place. The Thais were very hospitable,” she said.
Thai hotels gave accommodations and meals to stranded foreigners for free, telling them their firms would get reimbursed by the Thai government, said Villanueva.
Businesswoman Geraldine Macavinta said foreigners were safe as Thai anti-government protesters took over the Bangkok airports, where the political drama appeared to have been confined.
"We weren’t harmed. They (protesters) did not hurt us. The rest of the city was peaceful," she said.
Filipino worker Regine Alipala, who was en route to a job in Kuwait but got stuck in Bangkok since November 26, admitted feeling scared upon receiving news of clashes between government security and Thai protesters.
"We were afraid, especially where there were clashes," she said.
Fe Bueno Albano of Dingras, Ilocos Norte, who went to Thailand with her son for an early Christmas shopping, was undaunted by the entire Bangkok crisis and was already thinking of returning there in the future.
"Despite the delay in our return, we had delightful experiences. We will be back again to shop," she said.
According to PAL president Jaime Bautista, the special PAL flight, a Boeing 747, has a passenger capacity of 433, but the flag carrier accepted just 422 passengers, including 10 foreigners. Six of the seats had been reserved for members of the media from Manila.
Bautista said PAL was committed to bring all its clients back to the Philippines.
The first batch of Filipinos airlifted from Chiang Mai included overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who came from Kuwait, professional Filipino golfers, politicians, a group of senior engineers, doctors and tourists.
Other stranded Filipinos, who could not be accommodated by the special PAL flight, are taking a Cebu Pacific plane.
Cebu Pacific announced it was sending a 179-seat Airbus A320 Monday to the U-Tapao naval base, 190 kilometers from Bangkok. The flight was to leave at 9 p.m. Monday night and would be back at 5 Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday afternoon, PAL is sending a second plane to Chiang Mai to pick up other stranded Filipinos.
Some 350,000 foreigner travelers are stranded in Thailand because of the protests that have closed down two airports in the Thai capital.
On Sunday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the repatriation of Filipinos stranded in Thailand. Among them were Lanao del Norte Representative Mohammad Dimaporo, who was with his wife and 29 village officials.
Senator Madrigal in Pattaya
Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal is also in Thailand, but aides are not sure whether she was stranded. Aides on Monday said that Madrigal had gone to Pattaya on November 26 upon the invitation of the prince of Denmark for an environment project.
Aides said that the senator was due to return home on Sunday and that they had difficulty communicating with her.
Vice President Noli de Castro, presidential adviser on overseas Filipinos, said the government expected the number of stranded Filipinos to increase because the airports in Bangkok remained closed.
The Philippine Embassy has recommended the postponement of nonessential travel to Bangkok by Filipinos because of the escalation of violence and the campaign to oust Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
The protesters accuse the prime minister of being a corrupt proxy of Thaksin who was ousted in a coup in 2006. Somchai is Thaksin’s brother-in-law.
PAL spokesperson Rolly Estabillo said a PAL A330 aircraft, which has a capacity of 322, would leave Manila at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The plane is expected to return to Manila at 12:30 Wednesday morning.
“It is open to commercial passengers,” Estabillo told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday night.
Promissory notes
Ambassador Rodriguez earlier said that the passengers, most of them tourists, would have to pay for their flight home as the PAL plane was a commercial flight.
Passengers who cannot afford to pay immediately may make arrangements such as promissory notes, he said.
PAL manager Monet Trespeses said 280 stranded passengers had reserved seats for the flight to Manila as of 4 p.m. Monday. They included 60 passengers holding PAL tickets and 220 passengers of other airlines, but mostly from Cebu Pacific.
Penniless
But some frantic passengers were worried they might not be able to board the PAL flight.
Already penniless after days of being stranded in Bangkok, they said they would not be able to shell out the Bt7,000 air fare required by PAL (1 baht is equivalent to 1.38 pesos).
“Please tell the government to do something. We don’t have money anymore,” said a woman who called up the Inquirer by mobile phone. She was with a group of 11 on a tour package.
Nilo Abuyan, a government employee in Quezon province, also complained about government inaction on the plight of stranded Filipinos.
“The Philippine government should have contingency plans in these kinds of situation,” he said.
He came to Bangkok with three members of his family for a vacation. Now his problem is how to get home since they are booked on Kuwait Airways and their funds are almost depleted.
He said many other Filipinos were even in a much worse situation.
Angry
Several stranded passengers in Bangkok have been calling the Inquirer to ask about the latest developments and to vent their anger at the government for not doing enough to ease their plight.
“All our stranded passengers are being taken cared of since the closure of airports in Thailand. We are making arrangements for flights to bring them home as soon as possible,” Esteban Conejos Jr., foreign undersecretary for migrant workers’ affairs, said in Manila.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has disbursed $30,000 to address the needs of stranded Filipinos in Thailand.
Also on the PAL flight to Manila were six OFWs from Kuwait. They were stranded in Bangkok after their Thai Airways flight was forced to land at U-Tapao naval air base on November 26 when protesters seized the Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
The six were part of a group of 103 Filipino OFWs en route to Manila via Bangkok. They include a caregiver, a diesel mechanic, a mechanical technician and a sales lady.
Their flight was supposed to stop at Bangkok just for one hour before proceeding to Manila but it failed to take off. They were taken by buses instead to the Amari Boulevard hotel in Bangkok.
The remaining 97 failed to board the PAL flight and were still stranded in Bangkok, waiting for the next PAL flight to Manila.
Mild stroke
A woman married to a Kuwaiti national said she suffered a mild stroke a day after their arrival in Bangkok, probably due to the stress of being stranded. She said she was going home to Manila because of her heart ailment.
Although tired after five days in Bangkok, she said she would endure the gruelling trip back home, including the 10-hour bus ride to Chiang Mai. “It’s OK. We’re on our way home anyway.”
Lanao village officials
Representative Dimaporo was glad that his group was not stranded that long in Bangkok. Dimaporo and his wife arrived on November 22 while the village officials came on November 25, just before the airports were closed.
“We went to eight provinces in Thailand to observe best practices in agriculture, fisheries, processing and other systems being used in Thai Villages. If they work well, we will replicate them in our barangay,” Dimaporo told the Inquirer.
They arrived in Bangkok from the provinces on November 28 and were scheduled to fly to Manila on November 29.
Engineers
A group of senior engineers, who attended a conference of the ASEAN Federation of the Engineering Organizations in Bangkok, said they were the only delegates left after other delegates from other countries were airlifted by their respective governments.
“But we’re glad, we’ll finally be able to go home to our loves ones,” said Alfredo Antonio, president of the ASEAN Eng, who led the 20-member Philippine delegation to the conference. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño in Manila and Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas
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