REP. DEMOCRITO RAYMOND MENDOZA of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Party-List yesterday said a joint congressional inquiry will be conducted this week to determine the plight of the more than 400 workers of Apo Cement Corp.
Mendoza, vice chair of the House Committee on Labor and Employment, told SunStar Cebu that an inquiry will soon be jointly conducted by his committee and the House Committee on Environment chaired by Rep. Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa (Cebu City, South).
He said this is not the first time the TUCP met this kind of problem of mass layoff from a mining firm.
The first was several years ago when Philex Mining Corp.’s tailing pond gave way, resulting in a huge disaster when the tailing went to the river in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR). Philex was fined in the amount of P1 billion.
“That Philex incident was a man-made disaster. Hence, it was penalized. However, the Naga City landslide incident was declared by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) as a natural occurrence. So, we are appealing to DENR to help prevent a mass layoff,” Mendoza said.
For his part, Abellanosa sent a text message informing Sunstar Cebu that, in the meantime, there is no congressional inquiry on Apocement that has been scheduled.
“What is in the (environment) committee schedule is the Dec. 12 presentation of the MGB and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) findings/conclusions/recommendations regarding the Naga (City) landslide,” Abellanosa said.
Meanwhile, Workers of Apocement who are facing mass layoffs by Dec. 13 will hold an indignation rally at the regional offices of DENR and Department of Labor and employment (Dole) today, Nov. 28.
Jose B. Ramas Jr., Apocement area field engineer and vice president of the Apo Union Employees-ALU told 888 News Forum at Marco Polo Plaza that they will request the two agencies to prevent loss of jobs and possible sad Christmas.
Ramas said the workers will request DENR Sec. Roy Cimatu to sign the Hazard Reduction Rehabilitation Plan as recommended by MGB, which is a DENR division in charge of the issue.
Second, they will request Cimatu to lift the suspension on quarry operation so Apocement can source the ingredient of their cement only in Naga City and will no longer buy raw materials from Bohol, which could increase the product price.
Dole 7 Director Johnson Cañete said that per termination report filed by Apocement in his office, of the 288 workers, only 64 will be affected by the six-month work suspension.
Cañete said Grace Diaz of DOLE Cebu Province just told him that the result of the profiling revealed that 64 temporarily laid off employees will not avail themselves of any assistance from them as they will wait for the six months the management set. (EOB)