Government employees staged a protest action in front of the office of
the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) today to demand concrete
actions from Sec. Ralph Recto who earlier positioned against the implementation
of the EO 366 amidst the massive retrenchments within the country and abroad.

The 1200 employees from the National Food Authority (NFA) were spared
from being utterly laid-off despite the notices of abolished positions due last
March 23 because of the consistent and tireless concerted actions of the state
workers. However, the threat of being dismissed still remains until the EO 366
or Rationalization Plan is revoked.

Employees from the Senate, DENR, PSC, DOLE and the DOJ are now facing
the peril of losing their jobs as new rounds of streamlining are to be
implemented. “We welcome Recto’s position but we have yet to see concrete
actions from the NEDA chief. If he is sincere about his standpoint, his office
can issue a formal resolution urging Pres. Arroyo to repeal the EO 366. He needs
to prove to us that his statements were not just mere propaganda.

“We challenge him to go beyond flowery declarations and make definite
actions instead. It has been two months since he first made his statement
against the retrenchments. However, we have not seen any tangible effort from
him to seriously bring the matter to the President. He has all the powers as
NEDA Director-General to convince Arroyo to finally rescind the EO 366. Some lawmakers
have filed resolutions for the junking of the policy. What’s barring him from
doing similar measures?” said Ferdinand Gaite, COURAGE National President.

The group claimed that the Arroyo government is doing another set of
retrenchments in different agencies after failing to fully execute the
Rationalization Plan in the NFA. According to the militant organization, the
administration is testing the waters if the employees in the other agencies
will not dissent the streamlining but they strongly asserted that their ranks are
always ready once the government continues its lay-off spree. “We will prove to
the perpetrators of the Rationalization Plan that our collective actions can
quash this anti-employee policy,” stated Gaite. #