Saturday, August 16, 2008 Tomas wants council to prohibit covering of faces during strikes, protests
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants the council to draft legislation prohibiting protesters and strikers from covering their faces.
Osmeña raised the possibility of vigilantes and intruders posing as protesters in pickets, which could result in violence.
In his news conference yesterday, he warned protesting workers of Gaisano South to heed the temporary restraining order issued by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
If the protesters go back to the picket line, Osmeña said he himself will disperse them and he will still be armed when he goes there.
“I’m glad that they have issued a TRO because that basically stabilizes the situation for now... But if they go back, then I will move. They can file all the lawsuits and threaten me all they want, and I wouldn’t think of the political consequences,” he told reporters.
Members of the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), however, returned to the Gaisano Capital South picket line at 9:30 a.m. yesterday and accused the NLRC of favoring management.
“For a fee of P50,000, the NLRC immediately issued a TRO? That’s injustice to the workers who were unceremoniously dismissed from the service because they affiliated (themselves) with ALU-TUCP,” said ALU-TUCP spokesperson Josefina Lim.
Lim said their picket is legal and their right to stage it is guaranteed by the Constitution. “NLRC is overacting in issuing the TRO. That’s abuse of authority”, Lim said.
NLRC Commissioner Violeta Bantug, the presiding commissioner when the TRO was issued, did not answer several calls Sun.Star Cebu made to her mobile phone.
The mayor, for his part, said he is not bothered by the ALU-TUCP’s statements that they will not be supporting his political party.
“Of course I will go back there, especially if the police will not go. I will go if no one else is willing to go but I will be armed. So if they’re going to harm the people again, don’t test me,” he continued.
Osmeña said he has started discussions with a lawyer-councilor on the possibility of passing an ordinance that will prohibit protesters from wearing masks or anything that will conceal their faces.
For the mayor, hiding one’s identity during such an activity is a sign of insincerity.
Earlier, he said that it was the sight of protesters’ covered faces that prompted him to get a shotgun from his car when he responded to a distress call at the picket line last Wednesday.
“I already discussed that with a councilor, to enact an ordinance that in a situation like that, you can’t cover your face. How would you know if it’s a boy or a girl when they’re wearing masks and shades?” said the mayor.
The proposed measure will still have to be studied by lawyers in the City Council.
“They could be intruders, infiltrators or even vigilantes, and it’s clearly threatening when you have people who are concealing themselves... It only shows their insincerity and proves deception on their part,” he added.
Although ALU-TUCP has vowed to attend the hearing set by NLRC on Aug. 28, Lim said they are also preparing a position paper on the actuations of the NLRC.
Director Elias Cayanong of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), meanwhile, said he cannot declare whether the picket conducted by ALU-TUCP is illegal.
He said workers have the right to peaceful assembly. What will be illegal is if they resort to intimidation or harassment of the management.
“In short, the workers can exercise their right without violating the right of others,” Cayanong said.
However, Erlinda Boiser Ramos, one of the lawyers of Taipan Development Corp. which owns Gaisano Capital-South and Gaisano Capital-Mactan, said the Philippine National Police (PNP) should disperse the ALU-TUCP strikers.
Ramos also commended Osmeña for visiting the picket line.
“The picketers disturbed the peace and order in the area because they blocked the sidewalks and the streets. It is only proper for Mayor Osmeña to clear the area”, Ramos said.
“We are thankful that we have a mayor like Osmeña whom we can depend on”, Ramos said.
In Mactan, the NLRC decision preempted the plan of the Mactan Tripartite Industrial Peace Council to intervene in the labor row.
The council met for just less than 30 minutes yesterday.
National Conciliation and Mediation Board Director Edmund Mirasol said “we can not intervene (anymore) because it is now for arbitration, sa NLRC na ang solution,” he said.
Lapu-Lapu City Councilor Eduardo Cuizon, the alternate chairman of TIPC-Lapu-Lapu, said the strike is significant because it is against the only mall in the city and is strategically situated on the highway leading to Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
Cuizon said the city only recorded two labor strikes in the last five years, both of them happening this year.
In May, workers of Keppel went out on strike after a deadlock on CBA (collective bargaining agreement) negotiation. Keppel and the workers came to an agreement in July. (LCR/EOB/AIV)
