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Government
employees held a rally today in Mendiola to register their opposition against
the approval of the House Resolution 1109 which will allow Congress to convene
itself into a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) in which members will be able to
amend the Constitution, saying that Cha-Cha would only mean more years of wage
freeze for them. They urged Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and his political allies to
focus on implementing a more significant wage hike for public servants rather
than putting so much effort on how to pass Cha-Cha through whatever means. “It
took several years for Congress to pass a law that will implement wage increase
for government employees. On the other hand, it only took one plenary session
for our lawmakers to approve House resolution 1109. Kapag para sa interes ng mga mamamayan, inaalikabok lamang sa mga
opisina ng mga kongresista ang panukalang batas. Ipapasa nga, kulang-kulang
naman. Pero kapag Cha-Cha naman ang pinag-uusapan, daig pa nila ang magnanakaw
sa gabi sa bilis ng kanilang pag-apruba sa batas,” said Ferdinand Gaite,
National President of COURAGE.

Despite
their claims that the wage increases under the SSL 3 are an initial victory for
them, COURAGE continued to hit the anti-government employee provisions under
the said law. Among their contentions are the staggered implementation for four
years, discrimination of employees in the local government units (LGUs),
outright disrespect for the painstaking struggles of the government employees
for benefits and incentives and the violation of the Magna Cartas (for social
workers, nurses, scientists, teachers etc.).

“The
wage increases under the SSL 3 apparently resulted from the tireless collective
efforts of the state workers. Though insufficient, the SSL 3 is a significant
development compared to the former Government Compensation Classification Act
or GCA. The increase is quite close to COURAGE’s call of a P3,000 pay hike for
minimum pay. Under the SSL 3, a minimum earner presently receiving a gross
monthly pay of P6,149 will receive P9,000 monthly (sans deductions), should
Arroyo sign the bicameral report on the new government pay scheme.
Unfortunately, the wage increases will be fully implemented after four years.
Employees will only receive a 10%-20% hike this July or this would translate to
P724/month for employees under Salary Grade 1 Step 1. In this case, this is no
different from the previous 10% increases in 2007-2008.

Now
that the whole nation is threatened by the approval of Cha-Cha, COURAGE vowed
to intensify its fight for a more significant pay hike scheme. The militants
insisted that Cha-Cha would only bring more headaches for government employees.
“Why would we allow something that pushes for the term extension of an
illegitimate president and the realization of widespread privatization of basic
services? Other than more years of wage freeze, Cha-Cha also means more cases
of retrenchments, unjust working conditions and violations of our rights as workers and
inaccessible social services for the Filipino people,” added Gaite. #