Inviting further insult

As much as I respect Secretary Ping de Jesus, I must confess that I was very disturbed when he, as a member of the Cabinet, said that his office “would consider” the idea that bus drivers should be given salaries instead of commissions.

Doesn’t the law provide that every employee should receive just compensation for services rendered or work performed? Doesn’t the law dictate that all employers must pay their share for the SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG fund? Why have we allowed companies to rewrite the law?

Secretary De Jesus cannot be blamed for this, but his statement shows what happens when government allows unfair exemptions to the law.

Unfortunately, in our country where the rich, the powerful and the influential control legislators and government, we have reached a state of the nation where the exemption to the rule now rules!

Companies are allowed to lay-off people in the interest of profit and not because of actual losses. Companies can have contractual employees for five months then fire them so that companies can avoid providing medical insurance or SSS. Companies are allowed to keep people on contractual basis for 10 years or even more.

Instead of employers, it’s the temporary or contractuals who now pay their own SSS and their Philhealth insurance as “Self-Employed”. Not only is it technically breaking the law, this situation will eventually break the bank or the collective trust fund of government agencies because only the “employees” are paying but the companies are not. THIS IS ILLEGAL and IMMORAL!

It is ironic that no less than the President exposed abuses in bonuses and compensations that officers and staff of Government Owned and Controlled Corporations have been giving themselves. How different is the abuse being committed by private companies who don’t pay salaries, SSS and PhilHealth insurance?

When the concerned nominees face the Commission on Appointments let “them” answer that issue!

It would be a tragedy and a continuing injustice if the Aquino administration which promised to set things straight chooses to let the exemptions be the rule.

It is not in the multi-million dollar investments that people will measure the Aquino administration. It will be on the little day-to-day things that people see, people feel and people know. It is in the perception of fairness, justice and rule of law and not on intangible things such as billion peso loans we get abroad.

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A lot of people are shaking their heads in disbelief over the way the new LTFRB Chief has been speaking on how his office intends to deal with the hooligan bus operators who masterminded the transport strike last Monday.

Given how the bus operators lied through their teeth in more ways than one, most people believe that sending the suspects a “show cause letter” why the LTFRB should not charge them, will simply invite more lies from the side of the striking bus operators.

Some readers have even expressed their frustration over the fact that the President’s men and women have not taken a pro-active role against the strikers as well as failing to grab the chance and valid justification to clean up what is clearly a graft ridden transport industry.

We can understand that the new LTFRB head may be hesitant to rock the boat because part of the historical fault is within the LTFRB. But in the case of last Monday’s strike and the current state of public transport, it is clear that an Iron fist policy must now be used.

Rather than sending out “show cause letters” or calling for “clarificatory” meetings, the DOTC Secretary should make a request to the Department of Justice to conduct a full-blown investigation or an inter-agency inquiry on last Monday’s strike.

Subpoena all bus drivers, invite media representatives and determine if in fact there were actual reports or proof of serious threats to bus drivers or were they threatened by operators. A joint investigation will also help expose if the strike was purely business-motivated blackmail or were there political groups instigating the destabilizing event.

Whatever else may come out of the government’s response, it must be made clear that while the LTFRB Chief is following SOP or standard operating procedures, he should leave no doubt concerning their determination to punish operators who dared to challenge the law and the government.

The worst thing that can happen is if the LTFRB fails to substantially punish a sizeable number of bus operators, and in the time prescribed by law, if not sooner. This issue is one that should not and will not simply fade away. The President himself has expressed his indignation at the “In your face” or behind his back protest so the LTFRB has little breathing room on this one.

Failure to burn a good number franchise papers in public will only mean one thing: the LTFRB is powerless and should be scrapped. That is the future of the LTFRB in the event they fail to impose the laws and enforce the rules.

By the way, even single proprietors, namely those one-taxi operators are so guilty of abuse but no one in the LTFRB, DOLE or BIR has really gone out to curb and collect from them! Like land lords in feudal times, they demand excessive rates from drivers, require drivers to shoulder most if not all the cost of operation while drivers drive 12 to 24-hour shifts. Where is the LTFRB in this modern day slavery?

We either shut down errant or illegal bus operators or we close down the LTFRB, it can only be one or the other. –Cito Beltran (The Philippine Star)