DAMMAM, 27 Sept. Filipino workers in the Eastern Region of the Kingdom are dying to meet with former President Fidel V. Ramos to ask a favor.
But in case his schedule does not allow for a meeting, they said the gist of their message is this: "Please persuade the Philippine Airlines to increase its flights here in the Kingdom and re-open its operations in Dammam."
They said the request is on top of the bigger concern of the Filipino diaspora: good governance and immediate enactment of an absentee voting law.
OFWs in the Eastern Region, mostly from Visayas and Mindanao, said they strongly believe that Ramos could help them by asking both President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Lucio Tan, major shareholder of the Philippine flag carrier, to re-open PALs flight operations at the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
Ramos, a senior adviser and special envoy of President Arroyo, arrived in Riyadh Wednesday night for a five-day visit upon the invitation of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tonight, he will meet with members of the Riyadh community at the Philippine Embassy to hear the concerns of OFWs.
The Dammam community urged Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla to arrange a similar dialogue with them because, they said, they also have many other concerns to voice out.
"The Philippine government always claims that we OFWs are modern day heroes because of our great contribution to the economic stability of our country through our dollar remittances. However, our government cannot even lift a finger to persuade PAL to serve almost one million Filipinos in the Kingdom," said Bay Angub, a mechanic from Davao City.
Some workers also challenged community leaders to discuss the PAL issue with Senate President Franklin Drilon who will be coming to Dammam next month to grace the Filipino Community Day celebration.
Instead of focusing too much on the Absentee Voting Bill, the community leaders should take up the immediate needs of the OFWs, said some workers.
"It is our right to vote. But, we only exercise this right once in every six years during the presidential elections. OFWs are going home on vacation every year and even every six months and the pressing concern is that we cannot easily avail the services of PAL," said Frank Bunyel, a machine operator from Leyte.
Of the estimated 900,000 Filipinos in the Kingdom, some 250,000 to 300,000 OFWs are assumed to be working in the Eastern Region.
PAL operates only in Riyadh with three flights every week. It used to operate in Dammam three times a week, and another three flights each week in Jeddah. When PAL reopened after its pilots went on strike in 2000, it never restored its Jeddah and Dammam flights.
OFWs still choose to take PAL for the convenience on its domestic flight connections in Manila. At present, the workers had to take a long exhausting travel since most prefer to go to Bahrain by road only to fly with other airlines.
In Manila, they have to transferfrom NAIA-1 terminal to the PAL terminal in NAIA-2 for their domestic connection.
Workers in the Eastern Region have to travel also by domestic flight from Dammam to Riyadh to take a PAL flight to Manila. And due to lack of PALs available schedule, the workers have to struggle to get a booking, particularly during the yearend when most Filipinos want to spend their vacation with their families during the holiday season.
Meanwhile, PAL has announced a new "single integrated program" for its frequent flyers. Jose Rojas, a travel consultant in Alkhobar, said that members of the PALsmiles and Mabuhay Club are automatically transferred to the Mabuhay Miles program which started on Aug. 1.
