Inefficient airline staff

If Cebu Pacific could not accommodate its passengers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3, blame it on the airline’s inefficient staff.

When employees are underpaid, their inefficiency comes out during the peak season when customers crowd the counters expecting to be served.

The budget airline should pay its front desk staff well. The low fares charged by Cebu Pacific should not be used as an excuse by the airline for underpaying its staff.

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Complaints about Cebu Pacific’s inefficient service are too numerous to be ignored. Many passengers have cited cases of baggage left behind upon reaching their destination, others about discourteous ground employees and flight attendants.

The Civil Aeronautics Board should ground all Cebu Pacific aircraft until it can assure better service for its passengers.

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Lest I be misunderstood, I have nothing personal against Cebu Pacific. My first cousin is a pilot for the airline.

Passengers have no beef against its airline pilots, who are among the best in the industry. Their complaint is against some staff members and flight attendants.

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If Lucio Tan, owner of Philippine Airlines (PAL), doesn’t crack the whip against some of his lieutenants at the airline, the vaunted national flag carrier may also go the way of Cebu Pacific.

Since Tan bought back PAL from San Miguel’s Ramon S. Ang, several complaints have been aired about some of its top officials.

For example, a PAL bigwig reportedly held a plane for 30 minutes because he was late.

The official reportedly ordered the people at the PAL counter at the Naia Terminal 2 to reopen after it had closed for a particular flight so he and his friends could be accommodated on that flight.

The bigwig is reportedly a relative of Tan by affinity.

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Days after Typhoon “Ruby” struck Eastern Samar province, President Noy visited Dolores town where the strong typhoon made landfall.

He handed Mayor Emiliana Picardo Villacarillo a check for P46 million for the town’s rehabilitation.

But there was not much damage in Dolores. The towns that took a beating were neighboring Taft and Borongan where flash floods destroyed property.

After she was given the check, Villacarillo reportedly left the following day for the United States. While her constituents suffer, Villacarillo is enjoying her vacation in the US.

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Villacarillo left the distribution of relief goods to her subordinates who allegedly gave the goods to their relatives and friends whose concrete houses have withstood the typhoon.

People whose houses of light materials were blown away and needed food and other relief goods complained to this columnist that they were left out.

The poor people who were not given relief goods by the local government received their goods from the Red Cross.

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The hut of 70-year-old Tina Fronda, a garbage collector, was burning in Barangay Moras dela Paz, Sto. Tomas town in Pampanga province on Christmas Day.

One of Fronda’s neighbors ran to the fire station for help. It could not be reached by phone since the line was always busy, according to the townsfolk.

When the Good Samaritan came to the fire station and reported the fire to the desk officer, he was asked what kind of house was on fire.

“Kubo po (a hut, sir),” the desk officer was told.

“Never mind. After all it’s only a hut,” was the officer’s reply.

Fronda died in the fire.

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