Supreme Court lets flight attendants file new plea

BAGUIO CITY—The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (Fasap) to file another motion for reconsideration of the tribunal’s October 2011 resolution that withdrew a ruling favorable to the group because of a technical error.

The Fasap case was one of three major cases discussed Tuesday by the high court justices, who are holding their annual summer sessions here, according to Court Administrator Midas Marquez.

Six Fasap members turned up at the gates of the court’s Baguio compound, wearing orange shirts and carrying placards.

Ding Dreyfus, Fasap spokesperson, said they should have been at work on Tuesday but decided to go to Baguio to remind the court “that we are here, we are very much alive and we are very much involved.”

In a resolution in October 2011, the high court took back a Sept. 7,  2011, decision issued by its 2nd division, which declared as illegal the retrenchment of 1,400 Fasap members who took part in a strike against Philippine Airlines (PAL) in 1998, and ordered PAL chairman Lucio Tan to indemnify the flight attendants with P3 billion.

According to the high court, the decision should have been issued by a special court division which resolved the 14-year-old PAL labor case, and returned the case for deliberation by the court sitting en banc.

The tribunal’s alleged “flip-flopping” over the Fasap case was one of the complaints that the House of Representatives made against impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona, who is facing trial before the Senate.

Dreyfus said: “Regardless of [how] the impeachment turns out, we’re not here for that anymore. We just want a final resolution and closure to our case. That’s all we want. Win or lose we just want it over so we can get on with our lives.” Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon