The boss flies budget

i've often wondered if there still exist cebu pacific marketing collaterals with the ill-fated tagline "the new filipino time" on it -- they should be burned, because the new filipino time seems a hell of a lot like the old filipino time.

have you ever read a rant about a delayed cebu pacific flight on this blog? no sirree! they've become so common that i get over the announcement of the delay in the time that it takes me to roll my eyes and sigh. oh, and i always show up late at the airport if it's a cebu pacific flight.

i've taken ten or so flights with cebu pacific over the past two years; marlon has taken about five or six. none of them ever left on time. ever.

which is why, on my cebu pacific flight back to singapore, i could hardly believe that we were all boarding the plane at precisely 8:15 p.m. the flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 p.m.

i was incredulous. and maybe more suspicious than pleased. "wonder of wonders! i think we're actually going to leave on time!" i texted marlon.

i was at the tail end of the queue, since i was seated in the second row of the plane. i was tuned out and shuffling mindlessly into the tube when a couple of middle-aged men in front of me began to turn around and crane their necks behind me. "it's john! it's john!" the daddy types gabbered to each other furiously.

maybe john was their kabarkada who was late, and surprise, he made the flight! i thought idly.

i surreptitiously glanced behind me. at the very end of the queue, waiting for a short distance to open up between him and the rest of us, was an snowy-haired chinese man dressed in a suit and holding a walking stick.


and so, as he stepped into the tube with the rest of us budget travelers, the mini-mystery of "john" was solved, and so was the heretofore unexplainable phenomenon of a cebu pacific flight actually leaving on time.

abah. JOHN GOKONGWEI pala ang potah!

as he waited to step into the plane -- excuse me, his plane, the female flight attendants giggled nervously and joked about petitioning him (in sugary sweet stewardess tones, of course) for a salary hike.

"omigod ayan na siya, nakikita ko na siya!"

"welcome aboard, sir... increase!"

"kindly fasten your seatbelt for takeoff... increase!"

"oxygen masks will drop down from overhead... increase!"

it was hilarious. i remembered being back at gma, and the fog of heightened alertness and mild dread (more from the prospect of making a complete fool of yourself, than from the presence of the boss himself) that would crop up the minute flg would step into an elevator with you.

i sat behind him and his wife for the entire flight. i was pleasantly surprised that he would use a budget airline for his own trips (even if it was a budget airline that he owned). it was really cute to see him eat cup noodles and drink C2 like the rest of us hampaslupa. oh, and in the spirit of eco-chic, his carry-on luggage was a reusable canvas tote stamped with a goldman sachs logo. o diba, sosyal ang lolo mo.

i toyed with the idea of coming up to him, shaking his hand and telling him how glad i was to see him on my flight -- because he was the only person who could ever, ever make it leave on time.

but i didn't. he slept through the entire flight, and we all know how cranky people can be when they're bagong gising. maybe next time.