Does it show my age if I confuse Udoy Belmonte with Gido Babilonia? Lol. I’m familiar very with the aviation industry, too bad PAL’s Ab-Initio program ceased when they were bleeding cash during the pandemic. This is way off topic now, but one doesn’t need a degree in engineering to be a pilot these days. PAL had that program after they trained all their flight engineers to be pilots, so then those who were “within” those families can have their kids who either graduated from the big 3 (or deserving applicants from the other schools) to learn the ropes as cruise-relief pilots on International flights until they’re confident enough to be apply for a promotion as airline first officers. Whether or not they make it to captain has layers to it, mostly depending on company seniority, performance, and the usual Pinoy office politics.
These days, it’s a balance between time and money regardless of college degree. I vividly remember Jeric Fortuna and Khasim Mirza getting close to earning their Airbus type-rating until the pandemic stopped all airline recruitment. I don’t know if they’ve pushed on or not… point being, there are careers that players can switch to if they don’t make it as pro players, but it helps a lot to either be well-connected or have saved enough money to start something. Not everybody was born like a Paul Tan Chi.
