When pilots interfere

The camp of Chief Justice Renato Corona was outraged when the survey group Pulse Asia released its latest findings showing that 47 percent of those questioned in their poll said they think Corona is guilty of the offenses he is being charged by the impeachment court. But bad has gone to worse with the later findings of another group, the Social Weather Station, that showed a whopping 73 percent believe that he is guilty.

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Now even Senator Miriam Santiago who had been threatening Pulse Asia with contempt charges, has announced that she is no longer pursuing it. Could she have been affected by the defiant stand of those university students who thumbed their noses and said they were not afraid of her? Significantly, the SWS survey also showed that the same percentage – 73 percent – believe that Corona should be called to testify. Now, even Senator Santiago is saying that the defense may be weaker without Corona’s testimony.

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The senadora said this during a commencement activity at which she was the main speaker. As expected, she made fun of some of her fellow solons, to the delight of her audience. As far as the footage on that affair went, Madame Miriam kept her audience in stitches with quips and puns that could have overshadowed Dolphy and even the Three Stooges. No wonder many want to get her as speaker. She is a lot of fun – unless you are the target.

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The pilot of the JetBlue flight to Las Vegas who, well, got hysterical during flight and frightened all 141 people on board, is now confined in a hospital in Texas, and will be facing charges for “interference”. Is that all? The report said he tried to interfere with the flight. But it looks as if interference is not all the simple a charge, especially for a pilot. It could get him 20 years in jail if he is found guilty. So what do you think his lawyers will say? I have a feeling they will make him plead insanity, albeit temporary.

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While we are on the subject of pilots and airlines, it was saddening to hear that KLM, the Dutch airline that is said to be the last from Europe making direct flights to the Philippines, has also pulled out like the others. The reason given is that it has become too costly for them to operate here, with taxes higher than in other Asian countries. It is regrettable because KLM is one of the most reliable, efficient and reputable airlines, not only in Europe, but even worldwide.

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Maybe I am biased, because KLM was the very first foreign aircraft I took on my very first plane trip abroad. This was during the inauguration of the Philippine Airlines flights to Singapore, and I was among the media people invited to join the party. But instead of flying on a PAL plane then, we found ourselves on board a KLM one. I think the explanation was that the PAL plane was not yet ready, but the ceremonies had all been set, so we climbed into a KLM flight instead.

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And what a flight it was, with all those tall, good-looking blonde and husky stewards, and stewardesses with their peaches and cream complexions. But that was my first and last KLM experience, since the PAL plane was able to catch up with us and we all flew home on it. Oh yes, our flight attendants were also pretty, but the stewards were not quite so impressive. But of course I would not exchange our own PAL planes, especially for foreign travel, with any other.

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Oh, I got a lot of feedback about the tiled sidewalks along Lacson Street from people who claim they had already noted it before I did. Some have offered to send pictures of pockmarked roads in their barangays to show to those who prioritized the decoration of the Lacson Street sidewalks to the highways and areas really needing repairs. All I could tell them was, maybe your barangay is not seen and your roads not passed by many people, so you are not noticed. Or maybe your street will be fixed with expensive tiles after this.*

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