Recently, a Cebu Pacific Air pilot, Captain Van Ranoa, made noise by branding as showbiz the picture of Vice President Leni Robredo ironing her daughter’s graduation toga. Ranoa then elaborated that Robredo caused the diversion of his flight because the Vice President asked her plane to be given priority in landing in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The post was circulated widely giving a new ammunition for pro-Marcos supporters and trolls. Fact checkers came into the scene and revealed that no such incident occurred. The closest recorded incident that led to a diversion of a couple of flights was on March 8, 2022 when a Cebu Pacific plane from Naga City veered off a runway of the NAIA prompting the runway’s closure for nearly two hours. But that was two months ago, not one month. Whether it was Ranoa who piloted that plane, nobody knows just yet.
Because of the fact checking, Ranoa deleted his post and sanitized his Facebook account. He was unapologetic, though, and reasoned out that he deleted the post because many people in the social media are toxic.
Cebu Pacific initially issued a statement saying that Ranoa is entitled to his opinion though the airline is looking into the possible infractions Ranoa committed vis a vis the data privacy law and the CebuPac’s employees handbook. Later, it deleted its statement and announced that Ranoa has no basis and his story is speculative, and that the pilot is under disciplinary review.
Unfortunately, the change in tone came about after KakamPinks called on CebuPacific for its vague action on the matter. CebuPac was even associated with BBM after its President and CEO, Lance Gokongwei, was seen partying with the presumptive president.
It should be noted that the 31 million votes that BBM received mostly came from the D&E classes — those who do not usually travel. CebuPac and Ranoa forgot that the airline’s market are those in the B&C economic classes where the KakamPinks are.
Will Ranoa be fired to appease the KakamPink market? Only CebuPac knows. But even if fired, Ranoa still has a job — he is a vlogger and that could be the reason why he is seeking an instant fame.
Polevu 