Herrera urges Mendoza to heed SC ruling on TUCP tiff

Filipino labor unions are considered the biggest winners in a recent Supreme Court (SC) decision affirming an earlier decision this year by the Court of Appeals (CA) that Ernesto Herrera, not Democrito Mendoza, is the legitimate and sole national president of the 1.2-million strong Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

Herrera, in an exclusive interview by The Daily Tribune yesterday, is now appealing to the 91-year-old Mendoza to heed the SC decision and stop any dirty tactics to dissuade the public that there are two factions of TUCP.

“His time has passed. It’s about time for him to rest and enjoy life. He should listen to the SC decision,” Herrera, one of the two persons on Earth to receive the very prestigious George Meany international award, the Nobel Prize in the labor world, said.

In the decision of the SC first division, the highest court of the land gave credence to the decision of the CA that Mendoza’s resignation as TUCP national president some years back followed by the succession of Herrera is final.

The legitimate TUCP national president said there’s no more reason for Mendoza and his offspring to resort to dilly dallying and dirty tricks just to assert their leadership of the country’s oldest and most respected labor organization.

“Even before this decision was handed, I’m the one being recognized by the mother of all trade unions in the world — the International Trade Union Confederation — as the real and legitimate national president.

Not a single paper goes to the desk of Kito (Mendoza’s nickname).

The 350 biggest labor organizations in the planet are also recognizing me,” Herrera, a former 12-year senator and three-year congressman, explained.

Herrera said now that the country is beset by very high jobless rate, it is about time that the TUCP leadership concentrates on matters that will uplift the lives of the working class.

“They are among the backbones of the economy.
I have no time to think about petty things. All I know is my victory is the victory of the working class,” he said.

The former senator also appealed to the TUCP faction, now considered bogus, to stop using the name of the August labor union for their personal gains.

“Those who continue to introduce themselves as our spokesman but actually not should refrain from doing so. The SC decision is final and it must be adhered and honored,” Herrera said. –Ed Velasco, Daily Tribune