PASAPORTE, Cazzandra Angela A.

BA PolSc3 PSE 103 September 6, 2021

News Article:
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York after it secured
an agreement with its creditors. Due to their net loss of 73 billion pesos in the year 2020,
and continuing 16.6 billion loss in the first half of 2021, filing for bankruptcy would allow
them to reconstruct their company and reorganize their finances. This would only include
PAL and not its mother company PAL Holdings and PAL Express. Despite the filing, no
benefits nor discounts will be affected.

Source:
https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/09/05/news/national/pal-filing-for-bankruptcy-in-
us/1813591

Insight:
Under the pandemic, the Philippines is facing a deep recession. The GDP declining to
9.6%, the largest annual decline since World War II. The annual unemployment rate rising
to 10.3% with 4.5 million unemployed Filipinos. If Lucio Tan with a net worth of 3.3 billion
faced a setback due to the pandemic, how could a common Filipino, who has to work for
each meal, manage to survive? Does a carinderia owner have an option to file for
bankruptcy in order to reconstruct his business as well? What other options does a mere
Filipino citizen have in order to survive this pandemic? It may too far-fetched to compare
everyone to a billionaire but it just shows that it might be indeed true that we are all facing
the pandemic, but we are not riding the same boat of life. Someone’s paper boat is nothing
next to a yacht.