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