Increased 'de minimis' is good but we want discount card, too - labor group

Laborers buying snacks (file photo)

MANILA, Philippines -- While thanking the Aquino administration for increasing workers’ “de minimis” benefits by P10,000, a labor group said on Monday the government could do more for workers by providing them with discount cards they can use to purchase groceries or pay tuition, subsidized by unspent appropriations in the 2014 budget.

"We want to see President Benigno Aquino III make a long-lasting and meaningfully impacting reward in spending (the) 2014 excess annual budget for working Filipinos,” Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions, said in a statement.

De minimis benefits are small benefits not covered by withholding tax that are given to employees on top of their wages and are supposed to go to workers’ health, company goodwill and efficiency.

Starting January, workers’ de minimis benefits will increase from the current P94,225, implemented in 2012, to P104,225.

Current de minimis coverage includea P750 medical cash allowance for dependents, P1,500 rice subsidy, P4,000 annual uniform and clothing allowance, P10,000 annual medical allowance, P300 laundry allowance, P10,000 for employees’ achievement award, P5,000 Christmas gifts and/or anniversary certificates, and 25 percent meal allowance for overtime work and nightshift in all regions.

Aside from proposing discount cards, ALU also suggested that government spend any budget surplus by building a workers’ center where local talent may be trained and certified based on the needs of the domestic labor market.

The discount card and workers’ center were among the 10 demands presented by the Nagkaisa labor coalition during their April 29 Labor Day breakfast with Aquino.

“We don’t want Mr. Aquino’s legacy for working people to be known for improving de minimis benefits alone. He can improve their lives by investing on a training center or impacting their lives with a discount card,” Seno said. - By: Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com

Solon pushes R&D facility for banana trade

A lawmaker has proposed the creation of a research and development facility that would enable the banana industry to cope with global standards of productivity and food safety without sacrificing people’s health and the environment.

Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza of TUCP party list filed House Bill 5221 that seeks to tap the potential of the export banana industry in providing jobs and livelihood to 30,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries particularly in Mindanao.

Mendoza said the industry’s global competitiveness must be strengthened with the assistance of the government in the area of research and development.

“This is what the small growers need most. Funds must be allotted for the research and development programs of the industry. A National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana (NRDECB) could be created to assist the industry for more advanced and scientific farm operations in such areas such as land preparation, plant breeding, planting, crop-protection, harvesting and processing,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said a banana research institute is necessary in addressing banana pests and diseases that threaten the viability of Philippine bananas and could cripple both the small growers and corporate farms.

According to Mendoza, the most promising agriculture-based industry that has a great potential to boost rural development, where poverty rate is high, is the export banana industry.

Mendoza said since its inception 44 years ago, and until now, the Philippine export banana industry continues to provide livelihood to 320,000 workers and their families. The industry pays and average of P30 billion per year for workers’ salaries and wages excluding benefits.

He added that because of the banana industry, the peace and order situation in Mindanao has improved and better governance became possible where people’s livelihood is sustainable.

Mendoza said presently, the export banana industry is the country’s second biggest dollar-earning agricultural enterprise next to the coconut industry, which uses 4.5 million hectares. The industry’s average foreign exchange earnings annually is US$720 million.

“Needless to say, the industry has become a potent instrument of development and empowerment for almost two million residents of Mindanao who depend on it. They were able to improve the quality of their lives with the help of the industry. Truly, the export banana industry is a great blessing to many people in Mindanao,” Mendoza said.

Under the measure, the Center shall be based in the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Davao City. It is tasked to undertake basic and strategic research for developing technologies to enhance the productivity and utilization of banana and educate and train all stakeholders of the banana industry.

The Center is also mandated to serve as national repository of germplasm and information related to banana and plantain and also disseminate the knowledge for production and productivity, provide leadership and coordinate the network research for generating location of specific varieties, production and postharvest technologies and for solving specific constraints in banana production and collaborate with relevant national and international agencies in achieving these objectives.

Further, the Center is specifically tasked to develop improved cultivars through traditional and biotechnological methods, productive, high yielding, good quality varieties of banana and develop efficient, economic and productive banana production technologies. - Manila Standard Today

House bill pushed to beef up banana industry

A partylist lawmaker has batted for the creation of a research and development facility that would maximize the huge potential of the banana industry and strengthen its global competitiveness.

Because the banana industry is the country’s second biggest dollar-earning agricultural enterprise next to the coconut industry, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) partylist Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza urged the government to set up a Banana Research Institute to boost rural development and provide more jobs to poor communities.

“This is what the small growers need most. Funds must be allotted for the research and development programs of the industry. A National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana (NRDECB) could be created to assist the industry for more advanced and scientific farm operations in such areas such as land preparation, plant breeding, planting, crop-protection, harvesting and processing,” he said in filing House Bill 5221.

“We feel an urgent need for research and development facilities, scientific and environment-friendly interventions,” Mendoza pointed out.

He noted that the Philippine banana industry has been providing livelihood to 320,000 workers and their families since its inception 44 years ago.

The industry pays an average of P30 billion per year for workers’ salaries and wages excluding benefits, he said.

He even attributed the improved peace and order situation in Mindanao to the banana industry which has an annual average foreign exchange earnings amounting to US$720 million. - by Charissa Luci / Manila Bulletin

Establishment of national research, development and extension center for banana pushed

MANILA, Dec. 28 — A lawmaker has proposed the creation of a research and development facility that would enable the banana industry to cope with global standards for productivity and food safety without sacrificing people’s health and the environment.

Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (Party-list, TUCP) filed House Bill No. 5221 that seeks to maximize the great potential of the export banana industry in providing huge opportunities for some 30,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries, particularly in Mindanao.

In filing the bill, Mendoza said the industry’s global competitiveness must be strengthened with the assistance of the government in the area of research and development.

“This is what the small growers need most. Funds must be allotted for the research and development programs of the industry. A National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana (NRDECB) could be created to assist the industry for more advanced and scientific farm operations in such areas such as land preparation, plant breeding, planting, crop-protection, harvesting and processing,” Mendoza said.

He said a banana research institute is necessary in addressing banana pests and diseases that threaten the viability of Philippine bananas and could cripple both the small growers and corporate farms.

“We feel an urgent need for research and development facilities, scientific and environment-friendly interventions,” Mendoza stressed.

According to Mendoza, the most promising agriculture-based industry that has a great potential to boost rural development, where poverty rate is high, is the export banana industry.

Mendoza said since its inception 44 years ago, and up until now, the Philippine export banana industry continues to provide livelihood to 320,000 workers and their families. The industry pays an average of PhP30 billion per year for workers’ salaries and wages excluding benefits.

He added that because of the banana industry, the peace and order situation in Mindanao has improved and better governance became possible where people’s livelihood is sustainable.

Mendoza said presently, the export banana industry is the country’s second biggest dollar-earning agricultural enterprise next to the coconut industry, which uses 4.5 million hectares. The industry’s average foreign exchange earnings annually is US$ 720 million.

“Needless to say, the industry has become a potent instrument of development and empowerment for almost two million residents of Mindanao who depend on it. They were able to improve the quality of their lives with the help of the industry. Truly, the export banana industry is a great blessing to many people in Mindanao,” Mendoza said.

Under the measure, the Center shall be based in the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Davao City. It is tasked to undertake basic and strategic research for developing technologies to enhance the productivity and utilization of banana and educate and train all stakeholders of the banana industry.

The Center is also mandated to serve as national repository of germplasm and information related to banana and plantain and also disseminate the knowledge for production and productivity, provide leadership and coordinate the network research for generating location of specific varieties, production and postharvest technologies and for solving specific constraints in banana production and collaborate with relevant national and international agencies in achieving these objectives.

Further, the Center is specifically tasked to develop improved cultivars through traditional and biotechnological methods, productive, high yielding, good quality varieties of banana and develop efficient, economic and productive banana production technologies.

The bill provides that the Center shall be headed by an Executive Director who should be responsible for the planning, implementation and supervision of the Center’s program of activities. An Advisory Board is directed to review annually the plans and programs of the Center.
The amount of PhP300,000,000 is appropriated from the funds of the National Treasury necessary to maintain the operations of the Center. - (PNA)SCS/HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-PR/PJN

Establishment of National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana pushed

A lawmaker has proposed the creation of a research and development facility that would enable the banana industry to cope with global standards for productivity and food safety without sacrificing people's health and the environment.

Hon. Raymond Democrito C. MendozaRep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (Party-list, TUCP) filed House Bill 5221 that seeks to maximize the great potential of the export banana industry in providing huge opportunities for some 30,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries, particularly in Mindanao.

In filing the bill, Mendoza said the industry's global competitiveness must be strengthened with the assistance of the government in the area of research and development.

"This is what the small growers need most. Funds must be allotted for the research and development programs of the industry. A National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana (NRDECB) could be created to assist the industry for more advanced and scientific farm operations in such areas such as land preparation, plant breeding, planting, crop-protection, harvesting and processing," Mendoza said.

Mendoza said a banana research institute is necessary in addressing banana pests and diseases that threaten the viability of Philippine bananas and could cripple both the small growers and corporate farms.

"We feel an urgent need for research and development facilities, scientific and environment-friendly interventions," Mendoza stressed.

According to Mendoza, the most promising agriculture-based industry that has a great potential to boost rural development, where poverty rate is high, is the export banana industry.

Mendoza said since its inception 44 years ago, and up until now, the Philippine export banana industry continues to provide livelihood to 320,000 workers and their families. The industry pays and average of P30 billion per year for workers' salaries and wages excluding benefits.

He added that because of the banana industry, the peace and order situation in Mindanao has improved and better governance became possible where people's livelihood is sustainable.

Mendoza said presently, the export banana industry is the country's second biggest dollar-earning agricultural enterprise next to the coconut industry, which uses 4.5 million hectares. The industry's average foreign exchange earnings annually is US$720 million.

"Needless to say, the industry has become a potent instrument of development and empowerment for almost two million residents of Mindanao who depend on it. They were able to improve the quality of their lives with the help of the industry. Truly, the export banana industry is a great blessing to many people in Mindanao," Mendoza said.

Under the measure, the Center shall be based in the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Davao City. It is tasked to undertake basic and strategic research for developing technologies to enhance the productivity and utilization of banana and educate and train all stakeholders of the banana industry.

The Center is also mandated to serve as national repository of germplasm and information related to banana and plantain and also disseminate the knowledge for production and productivity, provide leadership and coordinate the network research for generating location of specific varieties, production and postharvest technologies and for solving specific constraints in banana production and collaborate with relevant national and international agencies in achieving these objectives.

Further, the Center is specifically tasked to develop improved cultivars through traditional and biotechnological methods, productive, high yielding, good quality varieties of banana and develop efficient, economic and productive banana production technologies.

The bill provides that the Center shall be headed by an Executive Director who should be responsible for the planning, implementation and supervision of the Center's program of activities. An Advisory Board is directed to review annually the plans and programs of the Center.

The amount of P300, 000,000 is appropriated from the funds of the National Treasury necessary to maintain the operations of the Center. - Lorelei V. Castillo, Media Relations Service-PRIB

‘Tax the rich instead of raising MRT fares’

THE labor coalition Nagkaisa! on Friday demanded that the government take away the subsidies and tax perks from the rich, such as the P5.2-billion subsidy for the power industry and five to seven-year tax holidays for local and foreign corporations, if it wants to save P2 billion in subsidies by imposing fare increases in the MRT and LRT.

Partido Manggagawa spokesman Wilson Fortaleza said removing the P7-billion to P10-billion annual train subsidy to free up money amounting to P2 billion for other social services was a fallacious argument, saying the poor, who are entitled to government subsidy in varying degrees, should not, by class or geographical location, be pitted against each other.

"This is comparable to the fact that businesses across all industry also enjoy billions of pesos of subsidy in the form of tax holidays, financial assistance, free repatriation as well as import and export privileges," said Fortaleza whose PM belongs to Nagkaisa! coalition.

He said the power industry, the most lucrative business in the country today, received a total of P5.2 billion in subsidy in 2012 based on the 2012 Census of Philippine Business and Industry.

He also cited the seven-year tax holiday granted a Thai-owned firm for putting up a P2- billion hogs and poultry business in the country, prompting local producers and growers to complain that the domestic hogs and poultry industry was being killed by big foreign corporations.

Fortaleza reiterated his group's position that it is more productive to provide an annual subsidy to the estimated 500 million rides of blue-collar workers and students who use the trains regularly than the luxurious lifestyles of 500 public officials.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the commuters' groups RILES and TREN are set to question the MRT-LRT fare hike on Jan. 5, a day after the rate increase is enforced by the government.

"We will question the basis for the increase, the authority of the agencies who approved the hike and the process by which the increase was upheld," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

He exhorted the public to support their initiative especially in seeking a temporary restraining order and massive street protests.

"We call on commuters to support this initiative by joining the various protest actions leading up to Jan. 5 and beyond. It is callous on the part of the regime to announce the hike during the holidays and implement it during the visit of the Pope. This period of joy and hope is dampened by the prospect of greater burdens on the poor," Reyes said.

"For that, let the world see the heartless, anti-people government that we have. And let the world know that the Filipino people are resisting its unjust impositions."

Nagkaisa!, for its part, likewise bewailed the huge revenue losses coming from tax evasion and smuggling, saying the failure to address this age-old problem had created a "pass-on" culture in public policy.

"This is the reason why the burden shifted heavily to indirect taxes like Value Added Tax and taxes withheld from wage earners.  At the same time, smuggling creates abundance of cheap imported goods at the detriment of local producers. And now the removal of subsidies," Fortaleza said.

He said smuggled goods had no local labor components, which was both a revenue and job loss to Filipinos.

He said PM supported the view of Senator Allan Peter Cayetano that unless trillions of pesos of lost revenue due to smuggling, tax evasion and official corruption was plugged, the removal of MRT/LRT subsidy would be painfully and socially unjust.

"Subsidy is a good social policy.  It is a right, an entitlement of poor people while corruption and fraud are privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful.  By removing the subsidy, the government is renouncing a good policy," Fortaleza said.

Quoting the World Bank, Cayetano said for every P1 collected by the government, P2 remained uncollected. This was estimated to be between P2 to P4 trillion of lost revenue or bigger than the recently approved budget of P2.6 trillion.

Cayetano said he would take up this issue next year amid the plan by the government to remove the subsidy to the metro rail system. The plan would double the MRT and LRT fares beginning Jan. 4.

Fortaleza said the coalition Nagkaisa! will be meeting next week to draw up plans against the impending fare hike. -  By Christine F. Herrera / Manila Standard Today

Groups to plan protest actions vs train fare hike

MANILA, Philippines - Various labor and people's organizations will launch protest actions against the impending Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) fares increase next year.

Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (Sentro) and one of the convenors of labor alliance Nagkaisa, said the fare hike is "anti-labor."

"The timing is not just bad. The policy itself is very bad, it's anti-labor," Mata said.

He said labor groups under Nagkaisa will meet after Christmas to come up with protest plans against the fare hike.

Mata noted that majority of the city's train riders belong to the working class who are the ones suffering daily from the poorly maintained railway systems.

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) also scored the scheduled increase while the workers' wages stagnated to the barest minimum.

"We believe pulling money out of a worker's pocket through a fare hike is an incentive to private concessionaires. We will gain nothing from it, not even improved services," FFW president Sonny Matula.

Another Nagkaisa convenor, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, hit the fare hike, saying it shows the government's repeated blunders in running public utilities because of over-reliance to private concessionaires.

Meanwhile, Renato Reyes Jr. of the militant group Bayan said they will contest the fare increase at the "soonest possible time."

"The DOTC's (Department of Transportation and Communicatios) treachery prevents oppositors from getting a TRO (temporary restraining order) because of the holiday season. Nonetheless, we will protest and challenge the fare hike," Reyes said.

The government hopes to generate around P2 billion from the fare hike which ranges from 50 percent to 87 percent.

Reyes alleged that the reason for the increase is not to give better service to the train ridership but to assure profit to the private companies.

"The users-pay principle government is invoking basically tells the commuter to fend for himself as no government subsidy is forthcoming. It's simply government abandonment of the taxpayers," he said. - By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com)

Various groups protest Metro Manila elevated train fare hike

Manila: Various groups are opposing the government’s move to hike fares for Metro Manila’s intracity elevated train service as they accused the Aquino administration of favouring the interests of big business rather than those of commuters.

The “Nagkaisa,” (United) said a move of the Department of Transportation and Communications to allow a substantial increase in fares for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transport (MRT) would hit commuters, especially at a time when they needed the elevated trains to get around the metropolis for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The groups opposing the train fare hike said the rate increase had come at a bad time.

“The rate of every crushing ride in MRT and LRT will be rising at a time rates in other public utility transport are falling because of plummeting prices of fuel oil. The timing is not just bad,” said Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (United Workers Centre or Sentro).


On the part of the Associated Labour Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), it said the issue is a matter of confused priorities and an ill-effect of the past and present government’s lack of foresight to invest in vital public infrastructures on its own without reliance from the private sector which has its own business interests to look after.

Quite simply they said, the issue of elevated train fare hikes is indicative of the clashing interests of the private
businesses that own and developed the MRT.

The LRT was started during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos in the early 1980s. It was developed to provide cheap and fast transport to commuters in Metro Manila. To do this, the then government had to socialise the infrastructure, in effect “subsidising” a portion of the fares for every train rider.

The MRT on the other hand, which was developed during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos in the 1990s and started operation during the presidency of Joseph Estrada in 2000 was put up mainly from money from private investors rather than the government as in the case of the LRT.

The two public utility infrastructures were from separate and distinct business models and the current government is now trying to blend these two to provide transport to Metro Manila residents and visitors.

“Again, this is another example of the government leading from the back.The result: Over reliance on a greedy, socially irresponsible private sector concessionaire. We are at the not so tender mercy of a government that does not have regulatory resolve,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of ALU-TUCP.

The left-wing umbrella Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance or Bayan) said the matter concerning the fare hikes is an issue of public interest over private sector gain. Fare hikes are much of a political as well it is an economic concern in a developing country such as the Philippines.

Renato Reyes, secretary general of Bayan said the train fare hikes are an “insult” to the commuter riders, most of whom are from the working class, who have to bear riding in unsafe trains.

In the case of the MRT, Japanese experts said the train has increased chances of being involved in a disastrous accident as its rails and overall running systems have been poorly maintained.

Last August 14, a train of the MRT overshot its tracks at the Taft station. The accident caused injury to a number of people. Fortunately there were no fatalities. - By Gilbert P. Felongco - Gulf News

Organized labor opposes MRT/LRT rate hike

The country’s biggest labor coalition Nagkaisa is adding its voice to the growing opposition to the impending rate hikes in the metro rail transport system.

Josua Mata, Secretary General of Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa or Sentro and one of the convenors of Nagkaisa likened the plan to a “wrecking ball” that will smash the train riders en masse come 2015.

“The rate of every crushing ride in MRT and LRT will be rising at a time rates in other PUVs are falling because of plummeting prices of oil. The timing is not just bad. The policy itself is very bad, it’s anti-labor,” said Mata.

Mata said labor groups under Nagkaisa will be meeting after Christmas to come up with protest plans against the fare hike.

Majority of the city’s train riders belong to the working class. They are the ones who suffer the daily violence of riding an beyond-capacity and poorly maintained railway system.

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) likewise assailed the planned increase while workers wages stagnated to the barest minimum.

“We believe pulling money out of a worker’s pocket through a fare hike is an incentive to private concessionaires. We will gain nothing from it, not even improved services,” said FFW President Sonny Matula.

Another convenor, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, bewailed the fare hike, saying it shows the government’s repeated blunders in running public utilities because of over-reliance to private concessionaires.

“Again, this is another example of PNoy leading from the back. Over reliance on Cabinet Secretary Abaya who not only doesn’t get, but is nowhere to be seen and heard. Result: over reliance on a greedy, socially irresponsible private sector concessionaire. Same thing in power: no policy leadership, ergo emergency powers request by another lackey in the person of Petilla who is letting the private power sector dictate supply policy. We are at the not so tender mercy of a government that does not have regulatory balls,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of ALU-TUCP.

On his part, Partido Manggagawa (PM) spokesman Wilson Fortaleza argued that the government should rather increase, not remove, the subsidies being enjoyed by train riders and at the same time put more money in developing the country’s deteriorating mass transport system.

“To us, subsidizing at least 500 million rides of workers a year is more productive than subsidizing the comfortable travel of 500 VIPs in government,” said Fortaleza, adding that all taxpayers pay for at least P8-billion a year of travel subsidy for our public officials.

In 2012, some 219 million rides were recorded in MRT-3, with an average 600,000 daily passengers. LRT 1 and 2 have 241 million combined.

Protest action staged against harsh, ‘punishing’ Fisheries Law amendments

Iloilo — In a race against time, fishermen and commercial fishing boat operators staged a protest in Iloilo City last Wednesday, December 17 to express their outrage against what they see as overly “harsh and punishing” measures embodied in amendments to the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998.

About 5,000 fishermen, fishing boat operators and supporters crowded around the Freedom Grandstand here to urge the Aquino administration in averting the negative impacts they expect to impinge on the fishing industry if he enacts into law said amendments on Republic Act No. 8550 (RA 8550) .

STANDING UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT — Fishermen, including employees of domestic fishing boat operators, stage a protest rally at the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand last Dec. 17, Wednesday, in an effort to reach the ear of President Aquino. Congress, upon the prodding of BFAR, has moved to amend the existing Philippine Fisheries Code, and among the amendments are measures which the fishing boat operators see as exorbitant and highly stringent. If enacted into law, the Panay Fishing Boat Operators Association (PAFISBO), a member of the bigger Association of Philippine Fishing Federations Inc. (APFFI) fears that the hefty penalties will kill the country’s fishing industries and leave hundreds of thousands who depend on the industry without jobs. (Tara Yap)

The protest action initiated by the Panay Fishing Boat Operators Association (PAFISBO) last Wednesday, follows a similar demonstration mobilized in Zamboanga City last Dec. 8 by the Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association (SOPHIL) headed by its Executive Vice President, Roberto Baylosis, along with officers and members of two major labor organizations, Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union (PIILU) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

Both groups, PAFISBO and SOPHIL are members of the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations Inc. (APFFI), all of which are united in vehemently decrying failure by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in consulting with them when BFAR initiated moves that led to Congress’ passing the amendments to RA 8550, which now awaits President Aquino’s signature.

PAFISBO President Jose Ma. M. Borres said their protest action yesterday “is a unified stand of not only fishing boat operators, but of the fishermen themselves. It is not only us, operators who will be affected by these amendments, but those to whom we give employment to who will lose their jobs if the operators close shop.”

The common call is for President Benigno S. Aquino III to veto the amended proposals of RA 8550 passed by both the Lower House and Senate.

One of the placards held up by a demonstrator in last Wednesday’s rally read: “PNoy, Batyaga ang Pumuluyo (PNoy, Feel the People’s Plight).”

The fishermen shared their sentiments on the excessive and nonsensical penalties imposed in the amendments concocted by the both Senate and the House of Representatives in the Philippine Fisheries Code.

Among the penalties are P2-45 million for lack of necessary permits or incomplete permits; P1-3 million for destruction of wildlife habitat; P500,000-P10 million for environmental violations; P100,000 to P5 million for making false statements regarding status of permits; and P100,000 to P5 million for coercing fishery law enforcers.

Moreover, the proposed amendments will also confiscate fishing vessels and fishing gears.

Worse, the boat captain, chief engineer, chief fisherman, and fishing vessel owner can be imprisoned for any of these violations.

Testimonies from fishermen said the new amendments are not only affecting them, but the Filipino consumers who will suffer because, as pointed out by one PAFISBO member, fishing boat operator Arnaldo Borres, Jr., “the Aquino administration wants to please the European Union (EU) by complying with European standards. It seems that government cares more about foreigners than for its fellow-Filipino.”

To recall, the EU has made demands that Filipino fishing boat operators who go fishing in the high seas, that is, in international waters like Papua New Guinea and Palau, to catch such fish as tuna, which are exported to Europe, have their boats installed with such ultra-expensive equipment as satellite-operated Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) and allow observers onboard (whose daily fees running into the thousands of pesos are shouldered by the fishing boat operator). - by Tara Yap - Manila Bulletin

‘Father of 13th month pay’ passes away

Bacolod City, Negros Occ. (PNA) – Negrense labor leader Zoilo de la Cruz, known as the “Father of 13th month pay,” passed away last Saturday, Dec. 13.

The 84-year-old former congressman succumbed to kidney failure at the Makati Medical Center, according to his son, Roland de la Cruz, who is Acting Director for Youth of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

De la Cruz authored bills providing for employees’ 13th month pay (Presidential Decree No. 851), the Social Amelioration Program in the sugar industry, and payment of Cost of Living Allowance (Cola) to workers in the private sector.

He served in Congress from 1993 to 1998.

Known as a human rights advocate and a “true labor leader,” De la Cruz organized the Sugar Industry Foundation Inc. (SIFI) and was one of the founders of the TUCP.

The younger De la Cruz said his father’s remains will be brought home to Negros on Dec. 19 where it will lie in state at the Sugar Workers’ Livelihood Center of the Department of Labor and Employment Provincial Office in Bacolod City.

On Dec. 20, a necrological service will be offered by different labor union organizations at the Sugar Workers’ Livelihood Center at 9 in the morning. On Dec. 21, he will be brought to Barangay Sum-ag in Bacolod for another necrological mass at the compound of former board member Nehemias de la Cruz at 4 p.m.

His remains will be flown back to Manila on Dec. 22 to Manila, where it will be cremated. - Manila Bulletin

Congress holds public hearing on Bangsamoro

FORMER House deputy speaker Pablo Garcia yesterday opposed the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) because Congress has no authority or competence to amend the Constitution to create another autonomous region.

Garcia expressed his views on the BBL during a public hearing and consultation on House Bill 4994 conducted by the Ad Hoc Committee led by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro) and Rep. Democrito Raymond Mendoza (TUCP Party-List).

Garcia said the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), created under Republic Act (RA) 6734 of 1989, and the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), created by RA 6766, are organic parts of the country's political subdivisions and cannot be abolished by just another congressional act.

But Rodriguez said laws are subject to amendments.

“There is no such thing as an irrepealable law. Pabling (Garcia) said only one (law) can be passed by Congress but that is not true because in 2001, RA 9054 was passed amending the organic acts. So, that is already a precedent,” Rodriguez said.

Repealable

“Congress cannot amend the Constitution, but any law, like the law for ARMM and CAR can be repealed anytime because laws are dynamic,” he added.

Rep. Benhur Salimbangon (Cebu, fourth district) said that there are many questions about the Bangsamoro and the public hearings are meant to address these and come up with the right legislation.

Rep. Francisco Ashley Acedillo of the Magdalo Party-List said that sustained peace and progress in Mindanao would also mean economic growth for Cebu and the rest of the Philippines.

Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia (Cebu, third district), Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City North), Rep. Mujib Hataman (Basilan), Rep. Tupay Loong (Sulu), Rep. Edgar Masongsong (1-Care Party-List), rep. Jorge Almonte (Misamis Occidental), Rep. Celso Lobregat (Zamboanga) and Rep. Neri Colminares (Bayan Muna) also attended the public hearing.

Mendoza said that while there were a few who opposed the passage of the BBL, majority of those who attended the 31 public hearings nationwide support it.

“We are talking here of ending a 40-year old rebellion. That's why the vast majority are for a Bangsamoro Basic Law,” Mendoza said. - By Elias O. Baquero - SunStar

Labor leader passes away

National labor leader and human rights fighter Zoilo “Zoy” De La Cruz of Bacolod City passed away at the Makati Medical Center in Makati City 9:40 p.m. Saturday.

De la Cruz, 84, a former labor sector representative in the House of Representatives, peacefully passed away surrounded by his children, his son Roland de la Cruz, former Murcia town councilor, who is also a labor leader, said yesterday.

Zoilo, who was suffering from kidney failure, had been undergoing dialysis for a year, his son said.

He dedicated his life to the welfare of workers, about whom he was very passionate up to the very end, said Roland, whose father was also a lawyer.

“My father’s priorities had always been God, the workers, and family in that order,” his son said.

A pillar of the trade union movement, my father, from his sick bed, reminded us to never give up the fight for the welfare of the workers, especially in the sugar industry, his son added.

De la Cruz, at the time of his death, was president of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines and numerous other labor groups, and national treasurer of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.

He conceptualized the Social Amelioration Program in the Sugar Industry, the 13th Month Pay, Cost of Living Allowance, and housing projects for sugar mills workers, his biodata states.

His remains that are now at the Santuario de San Antonio in Makati City, will be flown from Metro Manila to Negros Occidental on Friday, where it will lie in state at the Sugar Workers Livelihood Center in Bacolod City.

A necrological mass will be held at the Sugar Workers Livelihood Center in Bacolod City 9 a.m. Saturday, after which his remains will be transferred to the family home in Barangay Sum-ag, Bacolod.

Zoilo’s remains will be flown back to Manila for cremation on Monday and laid to rest at the Santuario de San Antonio crypt in Forbes Park, Makati City, Roland said.

He is survived by his children Jess, Linus, Benjie, Zoly, Lizalyn, Roland and Vivian.*CPG - BY CARLA GOMEZ - Visayan Daliy Star

Negros labor leader Atty. Zoilo V. de la Cruz passed away

Atty. Zoilo V. de la Cruz

The officers, staff and local union members of Pambansang Kilusan ng Paggawa (KILUSAN)- TUCP  through its president, Arthur Juego,  would like to extend condolences to the family, relatives and friends of Atty. Zoilo V. de la Cruz who passed away Saturday evening.

Atty. Zoilo V. de la Cruz, served as national president of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) , treasurer of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP and in Philippine Congress from 1993 to 1998.

Jeepney fare cut by P1, Bigger rollback possible – LTFRB; adjustment draws mixed reactions

BACK TO P7.50 — The minimum fare in jeepneys is back to the P7.50 as shown here by a ‘barker’ at the terminal on Leon Guinto Street in Manila, yesterday. Top photo, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chairman Winston Ginez holds the order slashing P1 from the previous minimum fare. (Ali Vicoy and Michael Varcas)

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) yesterday approved a P1 provisional fare rollback for jeepneys plying in Metro Manila.

The fare cut will take effect immediately, LTFRB Chairman Winston Ginez said.

From P8.50, the minimum fare will now be P7.50 for the first four kilometers. However, the rate for succeeding kilometers will remain the same.

The fare roll back will also be applicable to senior citizens and students, who are entitled to 20-percent discount.

Ginez said the LTFRB will issue as soon as possible a fare matrix to serve as guide to passengers and drivers alike.

In the provinces, Ginez said the LTFRB regional or provincial offices will have to implement their own fare rollback because diesel prices in these areas vary.

“We have directed them to initiate their own proceedings. Within 30 days, they have to report to the board what they have done with regard to the fare rollback. We would like that their decisions be based on regional prices,” said Ginez.

The LTFRB chairman said the rollback now is similar to 2011 when diesel prices were in the range of P34-P35, and the minimum fare was P7.50.

Ginez said the provisional rollback for now “is effective until further notice” but there is a possibility that jeepney fares might have bigger reductions in the future.

PALACE WELCOME ROLLBACK

Malacañang welcomed the P1 provisional fare rollback.

“That’s a timely decision from the LTFRB and will certainly be welcomed by the riding public,” Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte said.

The fare rollback was also a welcome development for transport and consumer groups.

Elvira Medina of the National Center for Commuters Safety and Protection said it’s “about time” the rollback was implemented.

George San Mateo of Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) expressed the same sentiment. However, he is concerned that the sudden implementation of the fare rollback might cause a ruckus in the streets.

He appealed to the LTFRB to set a proper date for the implementation of fare rollback to avoid discord within the streets, especially since not all drivers and passengers are aware of this provision.

Obet Martin of Pasang Masda said that the price rollback is just right since it is in accordance with diesel prices now. But like San Mateo, he is concerned that arguments might arise between drivers and passengers with the sudden implementation of the rollback.

MIXED REACTIONS

While Malacañang, consumers, and transport groups welcomed the rollback, the labor sector had mixed reactions.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) spokesperson Alan Tanjusay lauded the fare cut as an early “Christmas gift” for workers.

“The jeepney fare rollback is a welcome development for workers at this economically difficult period. This is a Christmas gift for minimum wage earners who commute everyday for work,” Tanjusay said.

“It’s a small amount but it’s a big relief for working people,” he added.

But the militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) demanded a higher fare rollback, saying it is not “commensurate” with the decrease in the global prices of petroleum products.

“Oil rollback should be more or at one-time not in installments.That’s cheating by big oil cartels,” KMU Chairman Elmer Labog said.

Labog also said the other private transportations like airlines, Metro Rail Transits (MRT), and the Light Rail Transits (LRT), should also follow the example of PUJs in reducing their fare rates.

He also said other private companies should also reduce prices of their services or goods to relieve workers of their financial woes.

“It’s high time for other quarters to follow suit. Like businessmen who should lower the prices of their commodities and services,” he added.

Negros Oriental Rep. Manuel Iway had earlier filed a petition seeking a reduction in jeepney fare.

Iway had asked the LTFRB to reduce the minimum fare from P8.50 to P8 for the first four kilometers, and the succeeding kilometer rate from P1.50 to P1.40 for jeepneys in Metro Manila, Regions 3 and 4. - by Czarina Nicole O. Ong (With reports from Genalyn D. Kabiling and Samuel P. Medenilla)

Jeepney fare cut by P1

MANILA, Philippines - The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) yesterday approved a provisional P1 rollback in the minimum fare for passenger jeepneys in Metro Manila.

LTFRB chairman Winston Ginez said the order took effect yesterday.

Ginez said they would still issue a fare matrix as revised even if the order became effective yesterday.

The jeepney fare cut involves a decrease from P8.50 to P7.50 for the first four kilometers in Metro Manila only.

The additional fare for every succeeding kilometer will still be P1.20.

For senior citizens and students, the minimum fare will be P6.

The board’s order is in relation to the petition of Negros Oriental Rep. Manuel Iway in October to reduce the minimum fare of jeepneys from P8.50 to P8 because of the series of rollbacks of fuel prices.

“Because of the continuing fall of world crude prices, the board moved to implement a provisional rollback of the minimum fare of passenger jeepneys in NCR (National Capital Region),” Ginez said.

The P1 fare reduction will be a big help to the public especially this Christmas season, Ginez added.

The board said the fluctuating diesel prices over the last five years dictated the minimum fare for commuter jeepneys.

In 2009, diesel price was pegged at P23 per liter. Two years later, the price went up to P37.75 per liter, resulting in fare hike from P7 to P8.

In 2012, diesel prices went up to P48 per liter, resulting in another minimum fare hike of 50 centavos to bring the fare to P8.50 for the first four kilometers.

With the series of diesel price reductions recently, the average price of diesel per liter is now at P33, prompting the board to decide to reduce the minimum fare to P7.50.

But the board’s order yesterday is only a provisional fare reduction, meaning temporary.

LTFRB board member Ariel Inton explained they deemed it necessary to issue a provisional fare rollback as they continued hearing the petition filed by Iway.

Another hearing is set on Jan. 14, Inton said.

The group ACTO, which earlier opposed Iway’s petition, has yet to submit its position paper to the board, Inton said.

He said the LTFRB had directed regional LTFRB directors to assess the prevailing condition in their areas and make recommendations if a minimum fare rollback is also feasible in their respective jurisdictions.

Elvira Medina, chair of a commuter group, welcomed the board’s ruling and said it was high time for a fare rollback, considering the decreases in fuel prices.

Labor groups welcomed the decision of the LTFRB to implement the fare reduction.

“The jeepney fare rollback is a welcome development for workers at this economically difficult period,” Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

“This is a Christmas gift for minimum wage earners who commute everyday for work. It’s a small amount, but it’s a big relief for the working people,” Tanjusay added.

The militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) called on the government to also cut the fare of the Light Railway Transit (LRT) and Manila Metro Rail Transit (MRT) as well as lower the prices of basic commodities and services for the benefit of lowly paid workers.

KMU chair Elmer Labog said workers nationwide are expecting more than P1 cut in jeepney fare since the amount of rollback is not commensurate to the drop in the global price of petroleum.

Labog noted that the fare rollback would also result in a huge reduction in the income of jeepney drivers.

“Even before the rollback, jeepney drivers are only earning a maximum of P400, which is below the minimum wage rate,” Labog pointed out. – By Reinir Padua (The Philippine Star) With Mayen Jaymalin

No to amended fisheries law

Zamboanga City – About 2,000 workers of fish canning factories and fishing vessels staged a rally Monday in front of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional office in this city to ask the President not to sign into law a consolidated House and Senate Bill that could close down canning factories and displace thousands of workers.

Jose Suan, national president of the Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union (PIILU) and vice president of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), warned that should the bill become law, said bill could render about 30,000 workers in the canning industry, who belong to marginal or poor families, jobless.

Suan appealed to Mr. Aquino to veto the bill amending the Philippine Fisheries Code because “all the fishing companies in the Zamboanga peninsula or Region 9, especially in Zamboanga City, will shut down or be forced to downsize and retrench workers.”

According to him, the companies that will be adversely affected by the amended law will be Universal Canning Inc., Mega Fishing Corporation, Oceanic Fishing Corporation, YL Fishing Corporation, Nancy Fishing Corporation, AMR Trade and Industrial Development Corporation, Century Fishing Corporation, OLC Fishing Corporation, E&L Fishing Enterprise, Zamboanga GMS Fishing Corporation, NCW Fishing Corporation, Jordan Fishing Corporation, Sky Ocean Fishing Corporation, Lourdes Fishing Corporation, OR Fishing, AM Fishing, S&M Fishing, Althea Fishing Golden hook Fishing Corporation, Big smile Fishing Corporation, Victory Fishing Corporation, and Walter Fishing Corporation.

House Bill No. 04536 and Senate Bill No. 2414 have been consolidated recently which seek to amend Republic Act (RA) No. 8550, otherwise known as the Philippines Fisheries Code of 1998.

“We support the President. But we were not consulted. We’re willing to sit-down to bring back this matter to the drawing table and to study it deeply by conducting proper consultation with all the affected stakeholders,” said Suan.

Meanwhile, the city government, through the City Legal Office, has prepared its official stand against the proposed amendments to the Fisheries Code that seek to increase the fines for violation of the fisheries law.

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said the consequences of the passage of the new law were explained to her by the officers of the Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association, Inc. (SOPHIL).

“We are assisting them to review their proposed opposition because we are looking at what legal measures that needs to be done in order to give our canning industry the opportunity to exercise freely their economic activities,” Climaco said.

“We have to prepare our documents in writing and submit it to the President,” she added, stressing that the amendment bill, if signed into law, will affect a lot of people now employed in different fishing canning factories located on the west coast of this city.

Looking out for workers

A party-list lawmaker this week called for a congressional probe into the widespread use of contractual labor by which thousands of workers in Mindanao were deprived the right to security of tenure, decent pay and other privileges under labor laws.

In his resolution, TUCP Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, vice chairman of the House committee on labor and employment, labor-only contracting is circumventing the labor code and denying workers the right to security of tenure, self-organization, collective bargaining, decent wages and occupational safety and health.

He cited the example of one fruit exporter that terminated the services of more than 2,000 of its workers in North Cotabato and simply replaced them with contractual workers from a cooperative and a manpower agency.

“The use of tax-exempt cooperatives which supplied workers to the company is clearly exploitative of the rights of the agricultural workers and exposing them to substandard wages, no overtime pay and without 13th month pay,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza’s revelations are a cause for concern, but are hardly surprising, given that most of us deal with contractual labor every time we visit a mall or patronize a fast food chain. In fact, we suggest that Mendoza’s focus is too narrow, and should be broadened to include the widespread use of contractual labor in the retail and services industry—including the media.

This same phenomenon is the subject of a bill filed by Gabriela Women’s Party Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Luzviminda Ilagan, which was referred to Mendoza’s committee in May.

“Contractual employment has long been a bane for the Filipino workers and people,” the explanatory note in House Bill 4396 reads. “While it surely allows capitalists to rake in bigger profits, it has not brought about anything beneficial to workers. Contractuals receive wages that are lower than those received by regulars and are denied various benefits. They can be removed from work any time and therefore find a hard time forming unions and asserting their rights. Women contractuals are denied maternity benefits, especially in the havens of contractualization in the country—the export processing zones, malls and other segments of the service sector of the economy.”

For anyone who is serious about inclusive growth, these arguments are compelling.

Unfortunately for workers, the Aquino administration has done little to curb the practice of labor contracting, and has in fact clothed it in legality by issuing guidelines on its use.

This, De Jesus argued, virtually teaches private companies how to “contractualize” their workforce in a legal way, and as a result, contractual workers now outnumber regular employees.

Ilagan added that contractual employment makes it easier for companies to lay off workers, leading to widespread unemployment.

HB 4396 is a good starting point to address a serious national issue. Any attempt to move it forward, however, should be shorn of rhetoric and approach the problem in a pragmatic way that takes into account why companies turn to contractual labor—and take steps to ensure that doing so becomes economically unattractive. - By Manila Standard Today

Extra-judicial killings, other HR violations persist under 'tuwid na daan' - groups

President Aquino signs the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act at EDSA in this Feb. 25, 2013 file photo. On the eve of the 2014 International Human Rights Day, various groups assailed his administration's record in human rights.

MANILA - On the eve of International Human Rights Day, a coalition of major trade unions and labor organizations assailed the "culture of impunity translated into extra-judicial killings (EJK) and other forms of human rights violations" that it said prevailed in a country once hailed as the beacon of democracy in the region.

The alleged rights violations target, among others, leaders and labor organizers under the Aquino administration's ‘tuwid na daan [straight path]’, the Nagkaisa! coalition said in a statement Tuesday.

Since 2011, Nagkaisa! said it had engaged the Aquino administration in dialogues on several labor issues, including 62 unsolved cases of EJKs involving labor.

The most recent involved the murder of a labor organizer in Negros Occidental. Rolando Pango, a full time organizer of Partido Manggagawa (PM) was gunned down in Binalbagan town in Negros Occidental on November 29, 2014, according to a Nagkaisa! statement.

“Prior to his death, Pango was deeply involved in both the agrarian and labor disputes in Hacienda Salud, a 135-hectare sugar plantation in Barangay Rumirang, Isabela leased and managed by Manuel Lamata,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

Pango had helped organize the plantation workers in Hacienda Salud who in June applied to have the land under CARPER coverage. Salud workers had also filed a case of illegal dismissal before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) against Lamata for unlawful termination of 41 workers.

PM and Nagkaisa urged both the national and local governments to render immediate justice in Pango's case.

Josua Mata, Secretary General of Alliance of Progressive Labor–Sentro, said Nagkaisa will raise this issue before the Tripartite Industrial Council (TIPC) and the DOJ panel investigating the EJKs.

Before Pango, another PM organizer, Victoriano Embang, leader of the Maria Cecilia Farm Workers Association (MACFAWA) in Moises Padilla town in Negros Occidental, was also killed on December 29, 2012. A failed assassination attempt against his brother, Anterio Embang, followed a few months later, February 28, 2013.

Magtubo, a Negrense himself, said Negros remains a labor hotspot because of strong resistance by landlords to agrarian reform and their outmoded serf-type treatment of their laborers.

“Perhaps this regional feudal context has escaped the eyes of the labor department and the national government. Or they simply don’t care,” added Magtubo.

March to Mendiola

Meanwhile, human rights organizations are mobilizing a big march to Mendiola on Wednesday morning to mark the International Human Rights Day.

Groups will start to assemble at the UST Espana footbridge in Manila starting at 8 a.m. to be at Mendiola by 9:30.

Protesters will deliver a GUILTY or “BAGSAK” verdict on human rights records of the Aquino administration, including impunity on climate justice as one major human rights issue facing our country, according to an advisory from the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA).

Aside from EJKs, Nagkaisa! said the "resurgence of other forms of human rights violations" is also alarming.

Last October, Antonio Cuizon, president of the Panaghiusa sa Mamumuo sa Carmen Copper, was arrested on trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The union and the management were then in the thick of labor dispute when the case was filed against Quizon.

But the most widespread of human rights violations, Nagkaisa! said, is the violation of labor’s right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Anakpawis: implement agreements with NDFP

In observance of International Human Rights Day, Anakpawis Partylist representative Fernando “Ka Pando” Hicap urged the Aquino administration to honor and implement the agreements between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Hicap is particularly referring to the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (Carhrihl) signed on March 16, 1998 and Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) agreed earlier on February 24, 1995.

“Kung kinilala lamang ni Aquino ang mga resulta ng peace talks, sa isang antas ang paggalang sa human rights ay mapo-promote at maiiwasan ang mga paglabag,” (If Aquino had only recognized the results of the peace talks, respect on human rights would somehow be promoted and further violations could be avoided)," Hicap said at a protest led by Karapatan human rights group in Mendiola.

Hicap invoked article 12 of the Cahrihl, “The GRP shall respect the rights of peasants to land tenure and to own through land reform the land that they till, the ancestral rights of the indigenous peoples in the areas classified as public domain and their rights against racial and ethnic discrimination, the right of the poor homesteaders or settlers and the indigenous people to the areas of public domain on which they live and work and the right of poor fisherfolk to fish in the waters of the Philippines.”

"If Aquino had only respected this provision, Lumad and Mindanao farmers need not to protest against massive militarization here in Manila, farmers rights in Hacienda Luisita, Looc, Yulo and other haciendas across the country could have been protected," Hicap said.

Anakpawis is also demanding the immediate release of NDFP consultants Benito and Wilma Tiamson; and political prisoners whose immunity, it said, are provisioned by the Jasig: Alan Jazmines, Leopoldo Caloza, Emeterio Antalan, Eduardo Serrano, Tirso Alcantara, Ma. Loida Tuzo Magpatoc, Ramon Patriarca, Edgardo Friginal, Jaime Soledad, Eduardo Sarmiento, Alfredo Mapano, Pedro Codaste, Renante Gamara and Roy Erecre.

Anakpawis said Aquino’s implementation of Oplan Bayanihan only resulted in more human rights abuses and demanded justice for the victims.

Anakpawis urged Aquino to resume formal peace talks with the NDFP and start discussing the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (Caser). - InterAksyon.com

Extra-judicial killings, other human rights violations persist under ‘tuwid na daan’ – Nagkaisa!

A culture of impunity translated into extra-judicial killings (EJK) and other forms of human rights violations against leaders and labor organizers continue under the ‘tuwid na daan’, a coalition of major trade unions and labor organizations in the country, Nagkaisa!, said in a statement on the eve of the celebration of International Human Rights Day.

 

Since 2011, Nagkaisa! is engaged in dialogues with the Aquino administration on several labor issues, including some 62 unsolved cases of EJKs involving labor.

 

Nagkaisa! said the most recent in the cases of unsolved EJKs was the  murder of a labor organizer in Negros Occidental.  Rolando Pango, a full time organizer of Partido Manggagawa (PM) was gunned down in Binalbagan town in Negros Occidental on Novermber 29, 2014.

 

“Prior to his death, Pango was deeply involved in both the agrarian and labor disputes in Hacienda Salud, a 135-hectare sugar plantation in Barangay Rumirang, Isabela leased and managed by Manuel Lamata,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Pango was instrumental in organizing the plantation workers in Hacienda Salud who in June applied the land under CARPER coverage.  Salud workers has also filed of a case of illegal dismissal before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) against Lamata for unlawful termination 41 workers. 

 

PM and Nagkaisa is calling on both the national and local governments to render immediate justice to this case.  

 

Josua Mata, Secretary General of Alliance of Progressive Labor–Sentro, said Nagkaisa will be raising this issue before the Tripartite Industrial Council (TIPC) and the DOJ panel investigating the EJKs.

 

“Like Ruby, solving cases of EJKs in the country is a slow-grind,” said Mata.

 

Before Pango, another PM organizer, Victoriano Embang, leader of Maria Cecilia Farm Workers Association (MACFAWA) in Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental was also killed on December 29, 2012.  A failed assassination attempt against his brother, Anterio Embang, followed  few months later, February 28, 2013.

A Negrense himself, Magtubo said Negros remains a ‘labor hotspot’ because of strong resistance by landlords to agrarian reform and their outmoded serf-type treatment of their laborers.  

 

“Perhaps this regional feudal context has escaped the eyes of the labor department and the national government.  Or they simply don’t care,” added Magtubo.

 

Aside from EJKs, Nagkaisa! is also alarmed at the resurgence of other forms of human rights violations.  

Last October,  Antonio Cuizon, president of the Panaghiusa sa Mamumuo sa Carmen Copper, was arrested on trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.  The union and the management were then in the thick of labor dispute when the case was file against Quizon.

 

But the most widespread of human rights violations, Nagkaisa! said, is the violation of labor’s right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

 

“The onslaught of state-sanctioned contractualization schemes have effectively disarmed workers of their ability to defend themselves, through their unions, against many forms of abuse and exploitation,” concluded Magtubo.

Probe of contractual workers-scheme eyed

A party-list lawmaker has sought a congressional probe into the massive contractual scheme of workers in Mindanao which deprived them of their right to security of tenure and other privileges provided under the labor laws.

TUCP party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, in filing House Resolution 1573, lamented that labor-only contracting has circumvented the labor code denying the workers right to security of tenure, right to self-organization, right to collectively bargain, right to decent wages and right to occupational safety and health.

Mendoza, vice chair of the House committee on labor and employment, cited the case of the workers of the Sumifru Corporation, a firm dealing in production and exportation of “Cavendish bananas”, pineapple and papayas in the Southern and Central Mindanao. The company exports its products to China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, New Zealand and Russia.

Mendoza said from June 2013 to June 2014, the Sumifru Corp. has terminated the services of its workers in Antipas, North Cotabato. Of the original 2,743 workers, only 529 were left.

Mendoza said the terminated workers were replaced by workers from Antipas Banana Workers Cooperative and Magsige MPC Agency who were asked to assume the job of the former regular workers of the Sumifru Corp.

“The use of tax-exempt cooperatives which supplied workers to the company is clearly exploitative of the rights of the agricultural workers and exposing them to substandard wages, no overtime pay and without 13th month pay,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said through contractualization schemes and the use of “fake cooperatives”, no employer-employee relationship will arise between the workers and the agricultural plantation.

“If there is no legal employer-employee relationship, the workers will be unable to enjoy the right to organize, bargain collectively and the right to collective action through strike, all of which are fundamental rights protected by the labor code,” Mendoza said. - By Maricel Cruz

Lawmaker supports firms going bananas over VAT claims

DAVAO CITY -- A party-list representative vowed support for banana growers that have cried foul over new rules that supposedly make it difficult for companies to claim value-added tax (VAT) refunds.

Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP) Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza said his office will also discuss the matter with the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) as delay in tax refunds may prompt banana growers to lay off workers.

Speaking before members and newly inducted officers of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, Inc. (PBGEA) and the Banana Export Industry Foundation (BEIF), Mr. Mendoza said that Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 54-2014 is not just a “private industry issue alone.”

Unremitted VAT refunds “create momentum to retrench banana workers” and the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) unfair confiscatory treatment dissuades banana growers from making additional investments, he said.

“Indeed it is a matter of perspective and just as in our campaign to counter the scaremongering against aerial spraying, what is necessary is for the industry and labor to come together to tell our story well,” the party-list representative said.

Earlier, it was reported that the new VAT refund regulations give the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to grant or deny a refund claim 120 days from the date of submission. If the tax chief fails to act within the given period, the claim is “deemed denied” and the taxpayer has 30 days to elevate its refund request before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA). The circular likewise applies retroactively.

Failure to comply with the 120+30 day rule, the BIR said, means the denial has become “final and unappealable.”

As a general rule, the Supreme Court ruled Section 112 (C) of the tax code gives 120 days to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to act on a refund request. If the tax chief fails to act within the given time period, a taxpayer is given 30 days to raise its tax claim before the CTA.

In September, business groups wrote a letter to BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares and Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima that said RMC 54-2014 “effectively created new rules and interpretation” which gave taxpayers a hard time to recover VAT refunds owed by the government.

Similarly, banana growers have cried foul over the new VAT refund rules, saying that they have yet to recover from the impact of typhoon Pablo that devastated 25% of the country’s banana plantations in December 2012.

PBGEA President Alexander Valoria earlier said that a total of 14,000 hectares of banana plantations in Mindanao were devastated by typhoon Pablo, mostly in Compostela Valley, with an estimated damage cost of P7 billion.

About 10,000 hectares has already recovered, he added.

Mr. Valoria reiterated the call of stakeholders in the banana industry that there should be more support from government, especially to small banana growers.

Banana is the second biggest agricultural export product of the Philippines, next to coconut, and the country ranked second only to Ecuador as the world’s biggest exporter of bananas, based on data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. -- Maya M. Padillo and Mikhail Franz E. Flores, BusinessWorld

Fishing company workers to rally today in Zambo

Company workers in fishing and canning, operators of commercial fishing vessels as well as members of a big labor union here, will stage a peaceful rally today in front of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) along R.T. Lim Boulevard to protest the proposed amendments to Republic Act (RA) No. 8550, otherwise known as the Philippines Fisheries Code of 1998.

Protesters led by Mr. Jose Suan, National President of the Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union (PIILU) and Vice President of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), have argued recently that thousands of workers will lose their jobs once the final version of the Congressional bill (House Bill No. 4536) amending the RA 8550 is approved by President Benigno Aquino III.

Suan said the peaceful rally will be from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., where the rallyists will assemble at Cawa-Cawa, R.T Lim Boulevard, then march towards BFAR.

He said officials of Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association Inc. (SOPHIL) led by its Executive Vice President Roberto Baylosis, and commercial operators homeported in Zamboanga City and officers and members of PIILU and TUCP who strongly support the appeal of Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations, will take part in the rally.

“We support the President but because of this, that we are not consulted, we are willing to sit down to bring back this matter to the drawing table and to study deeply (the House Bill 4536) with proper consultation,” said Suan.

“This (Congressional bill) needs to be reviewed. Sinasabi natin kay Pangulong Aquino na dapat tingnan mabuti ang bill, at magkaroon ng consultation bago niya aprobahan... they should look deeply into the House Bill because this is not good on the part of the stakeholders, particularly sa amin mga workers, we will lose our job,...not this railroading just to please the E.U. which we are not the exporter, we are only selling domistically,” Suan stressed.

“Why comfort the E.U. (European Union) when we are not exporting, particularly our main products here (Zambonga) are sardines?” Suan asked, reiterating an earlier statement of the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations, Inc.

Suan warned of “serious” consequences both economically unless the President vetoes the bill amending the Philippine Fisheries Code, “because thousands of workers will be jobless as all fishing companies operating in region 9, especially Zamboang City, will be closed down and forced to downsize and retrench workers.

“Our association will be much affected once the bill if passed,” Suan reiterated. “Magkakaroon ng downsizing or retrenchment ng more than 30,000 canning workers because walang fishing walang canning.”

The commercial fishing industry in the region — Universal Canning Inc., Mega Fishing Corporation, Oceanic Fishing Corporation, YL Fishing Corporation, Nancy Fishing Corporation, AMR Trade and Industrial Development Corporation, Centiury Fishing Corporation, OLC Fishing Corporation, E&L Fishing Enterprise, Zamboanga GMS Fishing Corporation, NCW Fishing Corporation, Jordan Fishing Corporation, Sky Ocean Fishing Corporation, Lourdes Fishing Corporation, OR Fishing, AM Fishing, S&M Fishing, Althea Fishing Goldenhook Fishing Corporation, Bigsmile Fishing Corporation, Vicory Fishing Corporation, and Walter Fishing Corporation — has more than 30,000 workers,

On December 1, 2014, the heads of the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations, Inc. through SOPHIL Executive Vice President Baylosis made an appeal to President Aquino, saying that the impetus for the lightning-swift passage of the bill is the intense pressure coming from the European Union who threatens to “red card” the fishery products.

“BFAR went overboard to please the E.U., an in fraction punishable by a fine of P10,000 under R.A. 8550 would now be punishable by as much as five million pesos for local fishing and up to ninety million pesos for large overseas fishing vessels plus an automatic escalation of 10% every three years.

The objective of this amendment looks noble: To conserve our marine resources. We support that objective, but law should not treat the commercial fishers as villains of the lowest level. Illegal fishermen using dynamite and/or cyanide cause irreparable damage, in contrast to the sustainable methods of commercial fishing. Unfortunately, the penalties for destructive fishing activities by illegal fishermen are even lighter than that imposed on commercial fishing operators,” the fishing federations’ appeal said Baylosis believes that the amendments of Philippines Fisheries Code of 1998 effectively convert BFAR into a superbody, with the enormous powers of a roving commission.

“BFAR will act as prosecutor, judge and executioner. It can not be issued TRO’s or injunctions. Neither can we file any suit against BFAR for any wrong they commit,” he added.

According to him, the bill was made possible because no meaningful consultation with the most affected sectors of the Philippine fishing industry was conducted.

No less than BFAR Director Asis Perez had admitted and profusely apologized several times before the whole body and Secretary Proceso Alcala during last November 29 post legislation meeting for not having consulted the stakeholders which represent the whole commercial fishing sector on the bill, Baylosis continued.

“If the fishing industry is killed by this bill... locally-caught fish will either disappear or will be priced very high. This situation can only be filled by importing fish,” he said.

He asked; “Would anyone eat imported frozen ‘galunggong’, if there were affordable fresh ‘galunggong avaiable?”

Baylosis implored President Aquino to veto the Congressional bill amending the Philippine Fisheries Code and help them start the process of working toegther to draft a new and more responsive one.

“A true Fisheries Code must be equally concerned with both marine resources and food security. The proposed bill only deals with crimes and punishments. No provisions to promote the growth of the fishing sector,” he said. — Hader Glang

Solon denounces contractualization scheme of big businesses in Mindanao

Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (Partylist, TUCP) has urged the House Committee on Labor and Employment to conduct an inquiry into the massive contractualization scheme of workers in Mindanao which deprived them of their right to security of tenure and other privileges provided under the labor laws.

Hon. Raymond Democrito C. MendozaMendoza, author of House Resolution 1573, said labor-only contracting has circumvent the labor code denying the workers right to security of tenure, right to self-organization, right to collectively bargain, right to decent wages and right to occupational safety and health.

Mendoza cited the case of the workers of the Sumifru Corporation, a firm dealing in production and exportation of "Cavendish bananas", pineapple and papayas in the Southern and Central Mindanao. The company is exporting its products to China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, New Zealand and Russia.

Mendoza said from June 2013 to June 2014, the Sumifru Corp. has terminated the services of its workers in Antipas, North Cotabato. Of the original 2,743 workers, only 529 were left.

Mendoza said the terminated workers were replaced by workers from Antipas Banana Workers Cooperative and Magsige MPC Agency who were asked to assume the job of the former regular workers of the Sumifru Corp.

"The use of tax exempt cooperatives which supplied workers to the company is clearly exploitative of the rights of the agricultural workers and exposing them to substandard wages, no overtime pay and without 13th month pay," Mendoza said.

Mendoza said through contractualization schemes and the use of "fake cooperatives", no employer-employee relationship will arise between the workers and the agricultural plantation.

"If there is no legal employer-employee relationship, the workers will be unable to enjoy the right to organize, bargain collectively and the right to collective action through strike, all of which are fundamental rights protected by the labor code," Mendoza said.

Mendoza said the policy of contractualization will create a race-to-to-bottom whereby agricultural plantations will seek to create comparative advantages and top shore up their competitive position by lowering wages, denying overtime pay and 13th month pay. - Media Relations Service-PRIB

Labor code in BBL pushed

A Congress committee hearing on Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) 

The country’s largest labor group is now pushing for the inclusion of the provisions of the Labor Code in the pending Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

In an interview, Trade Union Congress of the Philippine (TUCP) spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said the move will ensure workers in the proposed new independent region in Mindanao, which will be created upon the passage of the BBL, enjoys decent working conditions. He said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is already considering their proposal and has agreed to create a technical working group to discuss it.

“The negation for this is ongoing. In fact, they accepted our proposal to create a technical working group, which will be composed by labor groups, including TUCP, and will discuss the aspects (of the BBL) about labor, wages, workers rights and productivity,” Tanjusay said. The BBL is currently still pending in Congress. (Samuel P. Medenilla - Manila Bulletin)

Gov’t workers seek pay hike; strike looms

Philippine Government Employees’ Association (PGEA)

A group of government employees yesterday announced that it will hold a regular “Black Friday” protest to call for a new round of legislated wage increase.

Philippine Government Employees’ Association (PGEA) President Esperanza Ocampo said starting today their members will begin wearing black shirts to symbolize their complaint against the government’s inaction to their demand for additional pay.

PGEA is an affiliate organization of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which covers employees in the public sector nationwide.

“As a form of peaceful dissent, all government employees will be wearing black-shirt and hanging black streamers in front of government offices to push for SSL 4 (Salary Standardization Law),” Ocampo said.

Ocampo threatened that should their demand fall on deaf ears or takes years before it gets acted upon, they will be forced to hold strikes.

She said the wage hike they are seeking will allow them to cope with the rising prices of basic goods and services.

“The government employees are praying hard that President Aquino will open his heart especially this yuletide season to the appeal of government employees to increase their salary,” Ocampo said.

PGEA has been calling on the government to begin negotiation for a new wage hike after the four-year effectivity of SSL 3 ended in 2012.

Under the SSL 3, which was approved by the previous administration in 2009, all pay grade levels in the government were increased by 12 percent.

Ocampo stressed that since SSL 3, the government has not yet granted them any pay increase.

She lamented the current administration even reduced their take home pay by increasing their taxable income.

PGEA spokesperson Glen Pastorfide said it hopes the government will listen to their request to hold dialogue on this matter early next year, before the start of the filing of candidacy for the 2016 national elections.

He said any later date would reduce the likelihood of the approval of the new SSL since lawmakers will already be preoccupied with the elections. - by Samuel Medenilla , Manila Bulletin