Barazel "Bob" Salazar: From Security Guard and Ateneo Professor, to PAL Executive
Posted on Monday, 26 December 2016
Barazel “Bob” Salazar: From Security Guard
and Ateneo Professor, to PAL Executive
By Apolinario Villalobos
I met him when I had a short tour-of-duty
(TDY) in Masbate as a ticket clerk, a few months after I joined PAL, and when
Tablas station (my first assignment) was temporarily closed for runway
improvement. During the time, the station Supervisor was Rudy Cid and the Load
Controller was Jolly Fernandez, who resigned from PAL to run for mayor of the
said town, against one of the Espiἧosas, and although, he won, his stint was cut
short by his violent death from the hands of an assassin.
I vividly recalled the day when Bob and
Rudy Cid asked me to leave the check-in counter during my confrontation with
one of the bodyguards of the mayor (an Espiἧosa) as regards
their package using the “padala system”. Although, the said system could be
tolerated for compassionate reason, some parties abuse it, and being new, I was
very strict in following the rules that I learned during my training. I had no
knowledge then, about the local politics in Masbate, and it was only when the
flight has left that they explained to me everything…about the Espiἧosas.
From then on, Bob became more vigilant in checking during flight days if
personalities that could provoke me at the check-in counter were around. If
none, I was allowed to go on with my checking in of passengers.
I had no idea of how Bob was able to break
into the airline industry. I was surprised then, when during a meeting lately,
he told me that he went through a series of discouraging and harrowing
experience before finally securing a job in PAL as a Ticket/Freight Clerk. His
father was a Court Interpreter while his mother was a school teacher who died
when he was in second year high school. His father remarried but continued taking of them, albeit, with difficulty. It was during the time when they experienced receiving
food from the relatives. He settled down at age 19, while he was in high school. To help his family, he did odd jobs selling newspapers,
cleaning buses, working at construction sites, and as surveyor assistant. It was when was married when he pursued his college education and wife helped him financially until he
graduated. During the time, he was working as a security guard, an inspiring
fact that he proudly divulged to me without any qualm.
After graduating from college, he worked as
Inventory Clerk, and shortly, joined PAL as Ticket/ Freight Clerk assigned in Masbate
station, But when he was assigned in Naga as Station Agent, he pursued his
Master’s Degree at the University of Nueva Caceres. To help him augment his
income he taught a the Ateneo de Naga in the evening. He was able to finish his
MBA in 1987 at Naga, and the following year, he was assigned back to Masbate but at the
time, as Branch Manager. He moved on as Branch Manager of San Jose (Mindoro) in
1992. His teaching and post-graduate studies were not cut short, although, he was
transferred to other stations on temporary duty.
Our path again crossed when he was assigned
at International Sales Office at S and L building along Roxas Boulevard in
Pasay City. That was the time when the Philippines and Guam Region was merged
with the International Sales-Philippines which was considered as the company’s
sales “flagship”. When I left the company, I learned about his series of promotions
that he more than deserved. He was
promoted as Product Manager in 1998; assigned in Iloilo as Branch Manager in
year 2000; Cargo Marketing Manager in Manila up to 2005 during which he
authored the RHUSH which raked in millions of dollars of cargo revenue for the
company. Still in 2005, he was promoted as Asst. VP for Visayas; and, finally,
in 2010, sent to Japan as Country Manager. Today, he is happily retired, but
grateful to PAL with which he spent more than half of his fruitful life.
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