PAL work stoppage
halts Negros flights
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Philippine Airlines canceled all its flights, including six from Manila-Bacolod-Manila, yesterday as it ground crew mounted a work stoppage in protest against the impending outsourcing of PAL’s non-core businesses on October 1 that will affect 2,600 employees.

PAL Bacolod manager Fernando Bermejo said three of their flights from Manila to Bacolod and three others with 341 passengers from Bacolod to Manila were canceled yesterday.

These flights were the 9:30 a.m., 3:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. flights for Manila since the planes from Manila did not arrive, he said, adding that they rebooked or transferred passengers to other airlines.

The x-ray machine of the Bacolod Silay airport bogged down Saturday, as the local Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines in Negros Occidental braced for the influx of passengers to Bacolod for the MassKara Festival.

June Madamba, officer-in-charge of the CAAP-Bacolod office, however, said he was assured technicians will arrive to repair the x-ray machine at the final departure area, on October 3.

The three-week MassKara Festival celebration starts Oct. 1.

Typhoon Pedring stranded 933 sea travelers at the BREDCO port in Bacolod City and brought strong winds that destroyed two houses and damaged another, a Provincial Disaster Management Team report said yesterday

Strong winds associated with a gale force destroyed the house of Juarlito and Rosalina Nombre who have 12 children in Barangay 1, Himamaylan, located near the sea at 3:30 p.m. yesterday, a PDMT report said. The Nombre family members are now staying with neighbors.

Rescue groups also had to clear trees toppled on roads by strong winds in Barangay Suay, Himamaylan, the report added.