PSLINK has initiated an online petition in response to the rising call to abolish TESDA among our legislators amid the corruption controversy involving Syjuco.

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SOLIDARITY ACTION OF LABOR AGAINST GFMD (SALAG)

Today, major labor formations have come together in unity to formally launch the Solidarity Action of Labor against GFMD or SALAG. It is the first broad and independent national labor formation in the Philippines created to respond to issues on migration and development. SALAG includes the Labor Alliance for Better Order and Reform (LABOR), the different government employee unions affiliated with the Public Services International, and the Solidarity of Union and Labor Organization for New Government (SULONG).

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Just when the Philippines is trying to stay afloat amidst decades-high inflation rates and populist but senseless leaders, the “disaster season” strikes with a furious entrance. Typhoon Frank leaves on its wake classrooms jam-packed with homeless evacuees, billions of pesos worth of damages, a death toll of 49 and still counting. The rainy season in the country also revives a number of epidemics such as flu, diarrhea, malaria, dengue, leptospirosis to mention a few. And as our country is battered by one typhoon after the other in the next coming months, the pressure on the public sector to deliver services under extreme circumstances increases three-fold. The public health care system must provide health care even when there are shortages in medicines, hospital beds and even medical staff.

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‘SYJUCO WASTED P1.7B AT TESDA’

by: Francis Allan L. Angelo

A LABOR leader has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the more than P1.7 billion allegedly wasted by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) under director-general Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco. 

In a letter to Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez dated October 14, 2008, Annie Enriquez Geron, president of SAMAKA-TESDA, asked the anti-graft body to further investigate the 2007 findings of the Commission on Audit on Tesda transactions.

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Unions of government employees’ challenged government yesterday to take on more long-term and sustainable solutions to the ongoing economic crisis, rather than resorting to the proposed Php28 billion conditional cash transfer programs which include rice, power subsidies, fertilizer subsidies and Php500.00 monthly subsidies for poor families.

“These quick fix popularist measures that President Arroyo has been announcing are nothing more than a smoke screen to hide the long standing problems of corruption and inefficiency that have become the hallmarks of her administration”, said Annie Enriquez- Geron, General-Secretary of the Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK).

“Unless Arroyo tackles corruption and inefficiency, more Filipinos will slide further into desperate poverty. Prices of basic commodities will continue to increase and the food queues will grow longer”, said Geron.

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The current Jun Lozada expose has brought to fore many critical issues chief of which is the preponderance of graft and corruption in the country. But for civil servants, the whole affair most glaringly exposed the lack of security, protection mechanisms and regard accorded to whistleblowers. Ironically, it is the administration itself to blame for this sad state of affairs.

Whistleblowing has been proven to be an integral and effective tool in fighting corruption around the world. But the Arroyo administration has besmirched the essence of whistleblowing in the country as can be gleaned from the recent showdown between the administration witnesses and Lozada in the Senate. The administration came fully prepared for battle during the hearing. With all their doggedness, they endeavored to discredit Lozada, portraying him as the mischief maker, an attention-grabber, somebody who had a “penchant for drama.” They insisted on inconsistencies in Lozada’s claims, exploiting whatever gap they could find and making a whole fuss about it. Further, they went all-out to convince the public that Lozada was not abducted to prevent him from testifying and accused him and his family of acting in “bad faith” when they filed a petition for writs of habeas corpus and amparo.

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