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Friday, November 19, 2004
Sto. Tomas won't quit over Luisita incident
By Marie S. Neri and Jonathan F. Fernandez
MANILA -- Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas dismissed Thursday calls for her resignation following the bloody dispersal of striking workers of Central Azucarera de Tarlac where several people died and scores were injured.
She said her department remains optimistic it can resolve the dispute at the sugar refinery, part of the vast Hacienda Luisita plantation.
The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is brokering negotiations between plantation management and striking laborers Friday. The laborers snubbed Wednesday's Dole-brokered talks.
Laborers said they are willing to negotiate with management but would not buckle down on their demands.
A news website reported Thursday that nine policemen and three of the 14 protesters killed in the violent dispersal of the picket on the plantation tested positive for gunpowder burns.
The striking workers are asking for a P100 daily wage increase and a P30,000 signing bonus, which management countered with a P10 daily salary hike and P12,500 signing bonus.
Sto. Tomas said what transpired Tuesday was beyond her control and therefore blaming her for the deaths of the workers "is irrational".
She challenged those calling for her resignation to provide evidence that would prove her culpability.
"I will resign if it can be shown that I have acted illegally or immorally. But I will not resign at the insistence of some people who have blood in their hands," Sto. Tomas said in a briefing in Malacaņang.
Sto. Tomas blamed the "instigators" of the picket for what happened.
She said these people were responsible for the ballooning of the number of the strikers, which started at 80, to 3,000.
Under ordinary circumstances, the situation would have been easily resolved, she pointed out.
"In so far as the labor department is concerned, we did everything that is legal and moral under the circumstances," she added.
She refused to identify the groups that goaded the workers into going on with the strike and fighting the law enforcers, saying a proper investigation would reveal the details.
Sto. Tomas said the report she got was that 50 jeepney-loads of people went to Hacienda Luisita in November 15 to augment the strikers.
"I don't see why I should resign unless you're saying that I pulled the trigger and killed somebody there, as I said I will resign if you can prove or anybody can show that we did anything illegal or immoral," she said.
She said the dispersal is not a reflection of her but of the parties involved.
She said a labor secretary cannot resign after every strike otherwise, there will be a new labor chief every month.
Sto. Tomas said there was no reason for labor and management not to be able to solve the deadlock because there were offers and counter-offers.
The strike that was declared in Nov. 6, the second day of negotiations with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, was also "ill-advised" because the cooling off period, when the labor department exhausts all means to reconcile both parties, expires on Nov. 25.
She said the labor department will keep calling for meetings between labor and management "for as long as necessary because collective bargaining agreements are things that you cannot settle at the strike or picket lines."
Laborers did not attend the meeting Thursday so another meeting was scheduled Friday.
Sto. Tomas said the labor department did not authorize the military to carry and use firearms because they were just tapped to extend assistance to the police, whose troops of less than 300 was outnumbered by the strikers' 3,000.
She denied accusations that her office is taking the side of management saying that 80 percent of deadlocks resolved were in favor of labor.
The Hacienda Luisita case was not treated differently just because the owners include former President Corazon Aquino, she also said. "The treatment is the same. It is just another labor case," she added.
Sto. Tomas dismissed reports quoting some senators as saying she will find it hard to pass the Commission on Appointments because of the Hacienda Luisita incident.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Malacaņang will wait for the results of the PNP investigation before deciding whether it is necessary to form another fact-finding body.
Ermita said Malacaņang is not afraid that the dispersal would be used as a political issue against President Arroyo, adding there are already many issues being used against her.
He said it is "not farfetched" that the New People's Army meddled in the issue because the communist rebels want to sow disorder and discontent in the country.
Labor Assistant Secretary Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio, meanwhile, said they again scheduled another negotiation Friday to end the labor dispute in the sugar mill owned by the Cojuangco clan.
Although Bitonio admitted the atmosphere in Hacienda Luisita is "somehow peaceful now", government is still monitoring the situation and there are still police personnel patrolling the area.
"Until such time that these things were resolved, we cannot say that the situation is normal," Bitonio said.
Bitonio, at the same time, maintained that the issuance of the Assumption of Jurisdiction and the deputization of the police and military personnel are legal.
Bitonio said the workers and the management were given until Thursday to submit their position paper but should there be any agreement reached during the negotiations, the position paper would be deemed nullified.
He said Sto. Tomas has the authority to assume jurisdiction on any labor dispute if she feels the need for it.
"It's judgment call and the secretary is allowed to exercise her authority," Bitonio said as many have raised questions on the action taken by the labor chief, particularly the decision to deputize the military to maintain peace and order in Hacienda Luisita.
Records at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) showed the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (Catlu) filed a notice of strike (NOS) last October 25 after a deadlock in negotiations for a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Under the law, a NOS after a deadlock on CBA would have to be submitted to a strike vote and a cooling-off period of 30 days will be observed.
In the case of the Catlu, the 30-day cooling off period was not observed and this would show that the strike launched last November 6 could be considered illegal.
But Bitonio said there are certain technicalities that need to be determined before the labor department could say the strike is indeed illegal.
Bitonio said their concern now is to bring back to the negotiating table both parties and come out with a viable solution that would be favorable and acceptable to both sides.
United Luisita Workers Union president Rene Galang said although they are open to negotiations with management, the workers are firm on their demands.
"Management should heed our demands before we go back to work. We would be on the losing end if we leave the picket line," he said.
He said some 326 workers had been laid off but only 93 of them received their separation pay.
Striking workers paraded four caskets containing the bodies of their colleagues killed in the dispersal around Tarlac City.
They were allowed by the management to place the coffins at Gate 1 of the plantation.
They passed by the North Luzon Command headquarters where the kin and supporters of the fatalities cursed and hurled invectives at the military personnel inside the camp and stationed at the gate.
More than 300 soldiers and policemen and several military tanks were deployed in the sugar plantation to secure the area.
Meanwhile, police authorities insisted that striking workers fired the first shots, leading to the bloody dispersal.
Investigators have established that gunshots emanated from the strikers, which prompted the policemen and soldiers to fire back.
The police said labor department officials, accompanied by members of civil disturbance unit of the police and military, were serving a return-to-work order Tuesday afternoon when the violence erupted.
The police also claimed many of the strikers were not legitimate workers of Luisita.
They said truckloads of people from Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Isabela and even Bacolod arrived at the hacienda a day before the incident.
Until Thursday, the number of confirmed deaths is still seven but they are verifying published reports that the death toll has reached 14, said Bitonio. (With a report from JMR)
(November 19, 2004 issue)
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