MANILA -- President Benigno Aquino III said Saturday that he will meet with officials of Philippine Airlines (PAL) next week to discuss the latest problems hounding the national air carrier.

“We will be sitting with PAL officials,” President Aquino said Saturday during the unfurling of his late mother’s photo mosaic in Luneta Park in Manila.

Updates on President Benigno Aquino III's presidency

Aquino said he will look into the labor issues that might have been the reason why several pilots decamped for jobs abroad.

He has tasked the transportation and labor departments to arrange a meeting with PAL officials early next week.

PAL, in a statement on Saturday, said it will file appropriate charges against its pilots who earlier resigned without prior notice, leaving at least 11 of the company's flights on Saturday cancelled.

PAL spokesman Jonathan Gesmundo apologized to the public for the cancellations caused by the sudden departure of nearly dozen pilots for better-paying jobs overseas.

“The indiscriminate resignation of PAL's A320 pilots for flying jobs abroad whose salaries PAL is unable to match, is in violation of their contracts with PAL as well pertinent government regulations that require resigning pilots to give PAL six months prior notice to be able to train their replacements,” PAL said in statement.

The airline, however, refused to name the pilots.

“Most of the pilots still owe PAL the cost of their aviation school training, which run into millions of pesos per pilot,” the statement added.

The Manila International Airport Authority said that of the 11 flights cancelled, four were domestic flights bound for Cebu (PR 843), Cagayan (PR 181), Bacolod City (PR 133), and Iloilo (PR 147).

The other four cancelled domestic flights were supposed to depart from Cebu (PR 344), Cagayan (PR 182), Bacolod (PR 134), and Iloilo (PR 148).

Two flights from Hong Kong to Manila (PR 313 and PR 319) and another flight, which is supposed to depart for Hong Kong (PR 318), were also cancelled.

PAL said it is doing its best to respond to the problems of affected passengers.

“PAL is adjusting its schedules by merging some flights, upgrading aircraft to a bigger type in order and fielding of management pilots to lessen the inconvenience to affected passengers,” it said in a statement.

Gesmundo, meanwhile, denied that the current problem is linked to the management’s squabble with the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association.

The problem stemmed after the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) in June approved the plan of PAL to retrench 3500 out of its 7500-strong work force, whose work will be outsourced.

Earlier, Manila Auxiliary bishop Broderick Pabillo criticized the Dole decision made by then Acting Secretary Romeo Lagman, who said it was a management prerogative.

“There are existing policies against labor contracting even within the airline company so it’s unbelievable that the Dole came out with such ruling,” Pabillo said.

Sought for comment, militant group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said the government should take over the operations of the national air carrier.

“Tenural rights of the pilots should be respected. It is a just action of the pilots not to fly a plane in the face of the imminent job loss. Employees, even those who will be affected should join the mass action as a show of sympathy. Government should buy back PAL as an official flag carrier to keep it flying,” KMU chairman Elmer Labog said.

Earlier, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has urged Aquino to intervene in the labor dispute.

“The PAL management is viewed as a classic example of opportunism, with the aim of cutting jobs, downgrading conditions and breaking the union," said David Cockroft, general secretary of London-based ITF. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)