ARMM employees await dialogue on employment status in new Bangsamoro region

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Career service employees of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) eagerly look forward to a planned dialogue with lawmakers on the status of their employment in relation with the ARMM’s proposed replacement with a new Bangsamoro entity.

Members of the ARMM’s rank-and-file personnel, whose appointments were screened and attested by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), want officials of the commission to participate in the dialogue, too.

Lawyer Laisa Alamia, executive secretary of ARMM, on Thursday said Trade Union Congress of the Philippines Partylist Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza announced here last week that legislators will dialogue with regional officials and employees on employment concerns amid the impending creation of the Bangsamoro outfit based on the final peace compact between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Mendoza was among members of Congress that held consultations last week in Cotabato City and nearby provinces on the legal ramifications of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the enabling measure for the creation of a Bangsamoro government based on the government-MILF March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

“The supposed meeting was to take place this week. It must have been reset. We are just waiting for a notice toward that end,” Alamia said.

Employees of ARMM’s more than 40 line agencies and support offices, whose functions and powers were devolved by Malacanang to the regional government based on the region’s charter, Republic Act 9054, are apprehensive the transition, from the autonomous region to the MILF-led Bangsamoro government, will render them jobless.

Alamia said while ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman has continuously been assuring regional employees of protection from the CSC, their feelings and sentiments are something beyond the governor’s control.

“Even so, there is overwhelming support for the peace process from the ARMM’s personnel,” Alamia said.

Last week’s congressional consultations on the draft BBL in Central Mindanao were presided over by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the ad-hoc House committee tasked to enact the bill into law.

The ARMM government has no fewer than 30,000 employees, more than half of them working in the region’s Department of Education. - By John Unson (philstar.com)

Massive displacement of local, foreign workers seen next year

MANILA, Philippines - Many workers here and abroad are expected to be displaced next year, labor groups and recruitment industry officials warned the national government yesterday.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said about 24,000 local government employees are expected to lose their jobs with the setting up of Bangsamoro Transition Council next year.

“Workers employed in municipalities, cities, provincial and regional offices will be displaced once the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is dissolved and taken over by the Bangsamoro Transition Council,” said TUCP executive director Louie Corral.

He said the 24,000 workers are the largest number of employees to be affected as the new Bangsamoro government becomes operational.

The government, Corral said, has the primary responsibility to provide safety nets for these workers who had been serving the bureaucracy quietly.

Corral said the Aquino government apparently has no preparation in place for the impending displacement of government employees.

He called on the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to step in and take the necessary course of action.

“We are wondering why the commission has no preparations towards one of very important elements of the transition issue,” TUCP official Gerard Seno said.

Seno said the CSC should ensure that the affected workers would be integrated into the new Bangsamoro government using lateral transfer and merit-based integration rather than leaving their fate to circumstance.

Also yesterday, officials of the job placement industry reported that close to 4,000 Filipino workers employed in US bases in Afghanistan are also expected to be displaced.

Recruitment officials said thousands of overseas Filipino workers are likely to be affected by the impending pullout of US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

They said about 4,000 Filipinos are still working in Bagram Air Base and Kandahar Airfield and only around a thousand will be retained for maintenance of the military facilities.

Some of the workers are expected to return home starting November as their companies closed down after losing bids to supply logistics to the US forces.

But the workers are hoping that they will still be needed by international contractors hired by the US government, the recruitment officials said. - By Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)

Concerns over possible dislocation of ARMM workers

Labour confederation says 24,000 government workers in Mindanao would be left jobless once a new body takes over from ARMM

Manila: A labour confederation has expressed fears that some 24,000 government workers in Mindanao would be left jobless once a new body takes over from the administration of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

During a recent House of Representatives committee deliberation on the provisions on the proposed Bangsamoro Law, officials of the civil service commission admitted to Rep. Raymond Mendoza of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Party list they have not made any plans concerning possible dislocation of workers once an administration for the envisioned self-rule region steps in.

“The labour centre expresses concern over the unknown fate of these workers who would be dislodged once the Bangsamoro law takes effect. We call on the civil service commission to step in and take the necessary course of action. We are wondering why the commission has no preparations towards one of the very important elements of the transition issue,” Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labour Unions (ALU) said.

Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front had largely focused on the political and economic aspects of the planned Bangsamoro — a self-sustaining self-rule region envisioned to be comprised by Muslim dominated areas in Central and Western Mindanao. Authorities had all but completely ignored or had forgotten about the government workers who would be left without jobs once the transition starts.

It can be recalled that in March this year, the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace agreement, ending more than two decades of conflict with the Christian-dominated central government in Manila.

According to Seno, the labour group is proposing the civil service commission oversee transition matters pertaining to the labour sector and ensure the workforce to be integrated into the new Bangsamoro government would consider absorbing those currently employed in ARMM, with a merit-based integration adopted rather than leaving displaced employees to fend for themselves.

TUCP executive director Louie Corral said: “This is a significant number of public sector employees to be displaced. But the government has the primary responsibility to provide safety nets for these workers who had been serving the bureaucracy quietly. Rather than allowing these people fall through the crack, they should be integrated as they are already an asset.”

Sources said although a peace agreement had been signed between MILF and the government, it could still take several months until a new authority could be set up to replace ARMM.

The ARMM was set up during the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos as a result of the 1996 peace agreement between Moro National Liberation Front.

More than two decades after ARMM was established incumbent President Benigno Aquino III, as part of his promise to MILF, started work on dismantling ARMM which he described a “failed experiment” in self-rule. - By Gilbert P. Felongco, Correspondent Gulf News

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