Thursday, November 29, 2007 Butchers stage picket, lay down demands By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
THIS time, they're fighting for the survival of meat and pork consumers in Bacolod City.
City butchers and meat and lechon (roasted pig) vendors aired their grievances at the City Hall's Fountain of Justice Wednesday, condemning the job displacements that will come when a private contractor takes over operation at the new slaughterhouse in Handumanan area.
Picketing while the regular session of the City Council was ongoing, the slaughterhouse stakeholders stressed that about a thousand jobs will be lost and small meat and pork entrepreneurs marginalized with the privatization policy of the City Government.
The rallyists, mostly from Barangay 34 and 35 in Bacolod, said they feared that the cost inputs of AV Bernardo, contractor for Handumanan abattoir, as a private entity would surely raise the price of meat, pork, and lechon thereby decreasing the meager profit they earn.
The displacement, they said, will not just affect their livelihood but the cost of transportation in going to and back from Handumanan.
Slaughterhouse workers ad hoc president Samuel Cordova presented six demands to the council Wednesday.
These include the retention of the old slaughterhouse which is standing at a 4,080-square meter lot in Barangay 35; no to privatization under the management of AVM Bernardo Corporation; defending interest of the small entrepreneurs and workers of the slaughterhouse; improving the management of slaughterhouse; no the monopoly of the meat industry; and scrapping the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Leonardia administration and AVM Bernardo Corporation.
At the session, the house rules were suspended to accommodate the grievances of the rallyists.
Vice Mayor Thaddeus Jude Sayson reminded the slaughterhouse workers and other stakeholders that the agreement of the City and AVM Bernardo had been consummated as early as two years ago.
Sayson said the present slaughterhouse will not be totally transferred to Handumanan but will be converted to a fowl slaughterhouse.
