Former senator and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) President Ernesto Herrera commended the International Labor Organization (ILO) for acting swiftly on the complaint lodged by TUCP concerning the nomination of a workers’ adviser in the 2012 International Labor Conference in Geneva.
Herrera expressed appreciation to ILO for taking action vis-à-vis his complaint transmitted to the ILO Credentials Committee in Geneva where he questioned the nomination of Victorino Balais as adviser in the workers’ delegation of the Philippines, whose title that appeared on the provisional list of delegates was “vice president and general secretary of the TUCP.”
Jose Umali Jr. is the incumbent TUCP general secretary while lawyer Alejandro Villaviza is TUCP vice president and legal counsel.
In his letter to the ILO Credentials Committee, Herrera said the action of the government in nominating a person who is not an elected officer of TUCP and simultaneously designating him as vice president and general secretary of the TUCP, “is clearly an affront to the leadership, membership, as well as to the constitution of the organization,” which amounts to “blatant and notorious affront and violation of the TUCP constitution.”
According to Herrera, actuations like these by the government, in particular the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), in “interfering with internal union matters and privileges are violations of ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association.”
Prior to TUCP’s move to elevate the complaint to the ILO, Herrera called the attention of the DoLE, through a letter to the Labor secretary, to demand rectification to the nomination submitted by the government.
In response, the Labor secretary maintained that the designation of Balais as the TUCP secretary general on the initial credentials was an “honest oversight which the government immediately corrected in its final and official submission of credentials.”
The DoLE secretary wrote the ILO legal adviser asking that the title of Balais be corrected as “President, Philippine Transport and General Workers Organization and not as General Secretary of the TUCP.”
The ILO Credentials Committee accepted the rectification made by DoLE to remove the title of Balais as TUCP vice president and general secretary. –Daily Tribune
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