Just when the friendly skies cleared for the flag carrier to soar once more, a dark ominous cloud suddenly appeared blocking Philippine Airlines' (PAL) fly path.
Our relatively docile weekend was startled when news broke out about the untimely departure of PAL president and chief operating officer Gilbert Sta. Maria, who was at the helm for 30 months and successfully steered the airline just 19 days out of its financial woes.
True, the turbulent PAL stewardship has been going around for nearly a month along the corridors of its headquarters on Diosdado Macapagal Avenue, also the financial center of another Lucio Tan controlled-lender, Philippine National Bank.
What gives? Wonder no more. Here’s the back story on the resignation of Mr. Gilbert or GSM.
GSM, who was then described as the “handpicked nominee of PAL Chairman and CEO Lucio Tan,” has caught the ire of the tigers (the upper echelons) of the flag carrier when he recruited two foreign consultants, whose pay scale believed to be at par with PAL’s top tier executives.
Engaged were Christopher Gartner, a former executive of Etihad and Air Berlin and Eric Anderson, who used to work with Delta Air and Amerijet. Mr. Christopher is consultant for network planning and fleet while Mr. Eric is for strategy and planning. During the time of Jimmy J. Bautista these two vital functions were handled by only one person, Lito Alvarez.
The uproar came when both foreign consultants came on board without passing through the good governance committee. This created a snag and when asked to justify and explain the circumstances behind the engagement, GSM simply responded “there is no need since both are not organic” to the flag-carrier.
My lion’s ear or better yet my tiger’s ear (simply because its Lunar’s year) heard that such a bit of a haughty response negatively roared along PAL’s corridors, which irked some of the workforce, allegedly tagging GSM as somewhat snobbish and a bit annoying.
As an avid observer of the flag-carrier, I remember distinctly that any appointments and/or hiring of top tier executives/consultants must pass through the scrutiny of the good governance committee and have to be presented and its merits discussed in the board.
I am not questioning the qualifications and the knowledge of the aviation industry of Mr. Christopher and Eric but it calls to mind a similar incident in not too distant past and GSM was already the chief steward of PAL.
Wasn’t there a lesson learned from previous incidents that evaluating the qualification of executives and consultants triggered a cerebral tussle between one of the Tan heirs and the chair of the good governance committee.
“Any plans and decisions must be presented to the board. If it’s not acceptable, so be it. GSM bypassed both,” explained my muted source.
From what I’ve gathered, the appointment Capt. Stanley Ng, son-in-law of the cigarette tycoon, sits well with the airline working staff. Very acceptable.
He even impressed snooty board members with his updates on the financial performance of the flag carrier. “He has been presenting results of operations in the board meetings. He is very knowledgeable in this field, very clear and simple in his presentations.”
In the last meeting prior to the verbal tussle on the consultant issue, Capt. Stanley informed the board that PAL’s operations reverted to the positive territory with more flights mounted as travel restrictions loosened p.
Based on the announcement, Capt. Stanley’s stewardship is temporary – officer-in-charge. And from what I’ve gathered the appointment of the president is subject to process by the search committee composed of member of the executive committee with the young Lucio Tan III at the forefront
With Alert Level 2 in place, the PAL’s propellers will churn even faster now amidst its provisional leadership. However, I wonder if the foreign consultants will remain on board following the departure of GSM.
Talkback to me at [email protected]