clarinews@clarinet.com (MARTIN ABBUGAO) (02/02/90)
MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- Striking air traffic controllers, threatened with dismissal under presidential emergency powers, returned to work Friday after a 24-hour walkout that disrupted domestic and international flights. The 280-member air traffic controllers' union said the decision to return to work was made after negotiations that lasted until midnight Thursday with Transportation and Communications Secretary Oscar Orbus. ``Yes, he threatened to fire us,'' union spokesman Arnold Abad said in an interview with radio station DZMM. The govenment's granting of some concessions also was a factor in the union's lifting of the strike, Abad said. Orbus promised to grant demands for pay raises and adjustments in the recently promulgated wage standardization law that in effect demoted senior controllers' ratings, he said. Abad said controllers in the Philippines receive an average of $227 a month, far below international rates. ``We understand our economic situation, and they said they would try to do something about it,'' he said. President Corazon Aquino is empowered under the National Emergency Powers Act to order a swift end to strikes affecting vital services. The act was passed by the Congress after a bloody coup attempt Dec. 1-9 and was promulgated to ease the impact of the uprising, the sixth and most serious attempt to oust Aquino in her nearly four years as president. The one-day strike effectively grounded domestic services at the country's 43 airports. It did not affect international flights during the day, but operations at Manila's international airport suspended in the evening. ``We're back to normal now,'' Philippine Airlines spokesman Rolando Estabillo said Friday. The strike was the second by the air traffic controllers in four months. The controllers went on strike Oct. 7, paralyzing domestic and international flights, but returned to work seven hours later after Aquino promised to look into their complaints.