A historic moment – and then some

It was indeed one of those special moments in history, as Lucio Tan-owned Philippine Airlines described it – a president-pilot flying the President of the Republic on a mission for the nation.

There in the flight deck, Capt. Stanley Ng looked dapper as a pilot could be – and calm, focused and proud, as seen in the photos. He served as the Pilot-in-Command of the PAL flight that carried President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and the official Philippine delegation to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the ASEAN 2022 Summit last Nov. 9.

Capt. Stanley, PAL president and COO, chose to lead the flight despite his busy schedule because it was another opportunity to serve the nation, he said.

He also wanted to make sure all goes well in the two-and-a-half-hour journey from Manila to Cambodia’s capital city.

“I’m very patriotic so it’s always an honor to serve our country and the President. It’s also to make sure the flight will be safe and uneventful,” Capt. Stanley shares with me.

“We were 100 percent dedicated to making sure the President and his team had a safe and pleasant journey. This was another opportunity to be of service to the nation by flying the flag on an important mission,” he adds.

Philippine presidents

He is no stranger to flying Philippine presidents. He also flew flights for former president Duterte, to Malaysia and Thailand, and for the late president Benigno Aquino III, to Thailand, but this is the first time he served as Pilot-in-Command of a presidential flight as Pilot-COO of the airline.

Assisting Capt. Stanley in the flight deck of Flight PR 001 were Capt. Antonio Salgado Jr. and Capt. Gallardo Ibarra Jr., while pursers Monique Francois Gloria and Aimee Vijandre headed the crew of seven flight attendants, PAL said.

The presidential flight departed at 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 9 from NAIA Terminal 2 and touched down at the Phnom Penh International Airport at 6:47 p.m. Cambodian local time.

The President attended his first ASEAN leaders summit and met with heads of the ASEAN member-states and other partner countries while in Phnom Penh.

Asean Leaders Summit

While en route to Cambodia, the Philippine President conducted interviews with the media traveling onboard.

After the summit, President Marcos described the trip as a huge success, stressing that ASEAN memberstates agreed to help each other resolve common problems such as food supply, prices of fertilizer and surging oil prices.

Flying home

Flying home on Nov. 13, the presidential delegation departed from Phnom Penh at 8:46 p.m. local time, once again with Capt. Stanley and his crew in command.

Capt. Stanley, who was appointed to the top position in January 2022, is the first active pilot to serve as the top executive of the flag carrier since the 1960s, having ascended to the PAL presidency after an 18year career in the airline.

He joined the airline in 2003 as an airport customer relations staffer. He then took his Ab Initio Cadet Pilot training at the PAL aviation school and joined the pilot roster as a Second Officer in 2006. He rose through the ranks, eventually serving as chief pilot of the PAL Airbus A320/A321 fleet.

Philippine Airlines has been flying Philippine presidents on overseas journeys since the first state mission carrying president Elpidio Quirino in August 1949.

A journey of many stories That flight carrying President Marcos to Cambodia was indeed a momentous occasion for PAL and for our country.

At the same time, it is also a story of many stories written – or rewritten – at 35,000 feet in the air, all in a span of two and a half hours.

In a way, it is about new chapters made -– in the history of PAL, our country and the Marcoses; of the respective journeys of both the flag carrier and our nation.

History tells us, for instance, that 44 years ago in 1978, the government of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Marcos’ father, had taken over PAL from entrepreneur Benigno Toda Jr., “after getting a $3-million bill for flights by Marcos’ wife,” says the Washington Post in an article published April 23, 1978.

Those years were a tumultuous time for the airline – changing hands, facing financial difficulties, unpaid bills, etc.

And now fast forward to 2022 – how drastically time changes the course of things.

Decades later, the once sequestered airline is now in different hands, owned by the taipan we know as El Kapitan.

Decades later, the Marcoses are back in power, serendipitously – or not – on the 50th anniversary of martial law, with Marcos Sr.’s only son leading the nation.

Decades later, PAL is flying again, after many chapters in its history, including turbulent times including the COVID-19 pandemic. It recently recorded a profit of P6.76 billion from January to September, reversing the net loss of P21.83 billion during the same period last year.

Decades later, with Capt. Stanley Ng at the helm as its pilot-COO, the airline is determined to be among the best in the world.

Against this backdrop and amidst these circumstances, PAL on that Nov. 9 flight to Cambodia once again flew a Marcos and his First Lady.

It was indeed a moment in our history which, in many ways, marked many other twists and turns in this nation’s continuing journey.

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