Red-shirt protests upheld

Seven workers of the Government Service Insurance System have been cleared of administrative charges for initiating a “red-shirt” protest within the premises of the agency five years ago.

The Supreme Court en banc upheld their constitutional right by way of a rejection of the GSIS petition that sought to nullify previous decisions issued by the Civil Service Commission and Court of Appeals in favor of the workers.

The GSIS employees absolved of the administrative charges are Dinnah Villaviza, Elizabeth Duque, Adronico A. Echavez, Rodel Rubio, Rowena Therese B. Gracia, Pilar Layco, and Antonio Jose Legarda.

“Government workers, whatever their ranks, have as much right as any person in the land to voice out their protests against what they believe to be a violation of their rights and interests,” the high court said in its ruling penned by Associate Justice Jose C. Mendoza.

“Civil Service does not deprive them of their freedom of expression. It would be unfair to hold that by joining the government service, the members thereof have renounced or waived this basic liberty. This freedom can be reasonably regulated only but can never be taken away,” the court stressed.

In 2005, GSIS management issued a decision finding the seven workers guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and violation of the uniform rules. Gthe workers were meted out with the penalty of one year suspension.

The administrative case was in connection with the incident on May 27, 2005 in which the seven employees, wearing red shirts, left their respective offices and marched outside the GSIS Investigation Unit along with at least 13 other workers.

For their part, the GSIS workers explained that they staged a protest to show their support for their former union leader and staunch Garcia critic Albert Velasco, who was attending the hearing of his administrative case at the IU office of the GSIS central office. –Rey Requejo, Manila Standard Today