By Peter Tabingo, 9 Mar 2021
ONE cannot squeeze blood out of a dry stone or water out of a parched land.
With this pronouncement, the Commission on Audit denied a petition by a group of former rank-and-file workers demanding the payment of P461.55 million as compensation for their unjust dismissal from the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA).
In the five-page decision dated December 17, 2020 but released only yesterday, the COA Commission Proper said the LRTA is not the proper entity to pay the Pinag-isang Lakas ng mga Manggagawa sa LRT-National Federation of Workers’ Union-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Piglas-NFWU-KMU) and Sammy Malunes et.al.
Instead, COA Chairman Michael G. Aguinaldo and Commissioner Roland C. Pondoc said the petition should have been filed against the Metro Transit Organization Inc. (MTOI), a separate government agency and subsidiary of LRTA which supplied the manpower needs of the latter.
However, there is a major problem – the MTOI was dissolved 21 years ago shortly after the non-renewal of its operations and management agreement with the LRTA. The termination of the agreement was the indirect result of an illegal strike staged by the Piglas-NFWU-KMU on July 25, 2000 which paralyzed LRT operations.
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
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