{"id":222436,"date":"2016-03-07T06:06:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T20:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=222436"},"modified":"2016-03-07T06:06:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T20:06:01","slug":"pal-execs-meet-with-torres-hocog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pal-execs-meet-with-torres-hocog\/","title":{"rendered":"PAL execs meet with Torres, Hocog"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Philippine<\/a>
Philippine Airlines and PAL Express officials met with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog to discuss their upcoming operations as well as a request to push for easier processing of Filipino tourists to come to the CNMI. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Top representatives of Philippine Airlines, which will soon be flying direct and non-stop between Manila and Saipan, met with the CNMI government\u2019s top officials to discuss their request of assistance, among others.<\/p>\n

PAL\u2019s commercial group senior vice president David Lim and its code share partner, PAL Express\u2019 president Bonifacio Sam, made a courtesy visit to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lieutenant Gov. Victor Hocog last Friday.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Rep. Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan) and House tourism committee chair Rep. Joseph Guerrero (R-Saipan) were also present.<\/p>\n

The airline requested the Governor\u2019s Office to help them push for the inclusion of Filipinos in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service visa waiver program or be granted some kind of parole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually contemplating requesting your office to help us. Just like Russians, Chinese, they are given some visa waiver and we are trying to move toward that direction. Of course with your help, we\u2019d like to pursue that,\u201d Lim said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to request your office if you can help us,\u201d Sam said.<\/p>\n

Currently, Filipinos who would like to travel to the CNMI have to secure a tourist visa from a U.S. Embassy. This would take weeks to months processing depending on the number of applicants in the embassy and would cost $160 for application fee, whether the visa is granted or not.<\/p>\n

Lim added if some kind of program will be in place, this will increase traffic between Saipan and Manila especially as Filipinos now go out of the country for travel instead of for work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore Filipinos are going out of the Philippines as far as Europe, Iceland, as tourists and no longer contract workers. The landscape of the travelers in the Philippine is really good. It\u2019s now becoming more on leisure travel. If we have this, this will be a very good factor to improve the operations,\u201d Lim said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have enough traffic, we can have more flights,\u201d Sam added.<\/p>\n

PAL submitted a letter to the governor to formalize their request.<\/p>\n

Torres said he will definitely look into the request. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to officially write a letter to Homeland Security, Immigration, ask them if we can allow Philippine travelers to come to Saipan either visa-waiver or parole, some sort of easier process for them to come,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

Connecting CNMI<\/p>\n

Lim and Sam said PAL\u2019s goal is to increase flights from the current twice a week plan, and to \u201cconnect Saipan to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true Manila could be an excellent opportunity for the CNMI to be a hub and connect us even to the south side, to Fiji, to Australia,\u201d Torres agreed.<\/p>\n

Asked by Torres if PAL is part of an alliance, Sam said not yet but they are already talking and \u201cchoosing the right alliance\u201d for the airlines.<\/p>\n

Currently, however, PAL has a number of international code share partners such as Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Shaman Airlines, Etihad Airways, Turkish Airways, and All Nippon Airways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expanding, as some people would say, too fast, in terms of network expansion,\u201d Sam said.<\/p>\n

Last year, PAL added five new routes including New York, Port Moresby, and Auckland. This year, PAL is expanding to seven new routes. They are also planning to buy six more long-haul aircrafts.<\/p>\n

Torres commended the future contribution of PAL\u2019s service to the CNMI\u2019s tourism industry as well as medical referral needs. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust having the direct flight, the services that you have, it helps the government as well as our medical referral patients,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

Torres mentioned that they are also contemplating of opening a Marianas Visitors Authority and medical referral offices in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking into that. We have a medical referral program, currently we have a private entity who deals with the transportation. This is a great opportunity for us to work with Philippine Airlines to see what is the cost analysis for us to have an official MVA office in the Philippines as well as combining that with the Medical Referral Program to better serve our constituents,\u201d Torres said. <\/p>\n

With its inaugural flight on June 15, PAL will be offering twice weekly full-service flights departing Manila every Wednesday and Sunday at 9:20pm and arrives on Saipan at 3:35am local time the following day using Airbus A-320. Flights will depart Saipan every Thursday and Monday at 4:35am local time and arrive in Manila at 6:45am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top representatives of Philippine Airlines, which will soon be flying direct and non-stop between Manila…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":222457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,5607,63,122],"class_list":["post-222436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-pal","tag-philippines","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}