“It is simply unfair to make employees suffer theconsequences of the government officials’ abuses and wrong policies. We willstand by our sworn duty to serve the people and that includes opposingprivatization that shall only worsen the state of our public services”.

 This was the collective position of the employees fromthe National Food Authority, Bureau of Animal Industry, Department ofAgriculture and its attached agencies. At the weekly Kapihan sa Cypress,COURAGE the national center of government employees said President BenignoAquino III policy pronouncement on allowing more build-operate-and trasferschemes, increasing public and private partnerships and levelling the playingfiels for businesses is enough to push employees on the edge. Last week,proposals to privatize the NFA were also announced in lieu of the reported over-importationof rice.

COURAGE National President Ferdinand Gaite said privatizationshall not only mean lay-off for the employees but more importantly it shallmake much-needed social services more inacessible and unaffordable to thepeople. “Our experience with the privatization of water, power and oil speaksfor itself. The promise of better and cheaper public utilities remains apromise to this day. While the employees were laid-off and their retirementremains unpaid, the officials have pocketed for themselves the proceeds andkickbacks from the sale ”.    

Santi Dasmarinas, Spokesperson of the NationalFederation of Employees Associations in the Department of Agriculture (NAFEDA)and National Adviser of the NFA Employees Association (NFAEA-COURAGE) added theNFA alone employs at least 5,000 employees nationwide while the AgricultureDepartment and its attached agencies has more than 22,000 regular employees.  The leader also revealed that DA SecretaryProspero Alcala had instructed all heads of agencies under his department toimplement Executive Order 366, former President Arroyo’s rationalization of thebureaucracy that aims to cut by 30% the number of employees and also calls forthe privatization of the state farms, livestock facilities and otherproperties.

“We call on President Aquino to shun privatization andrevoke EO 366. He revoked EO 883 (another issuance of Arroyo which grants CESOstatus to lawyers), the state employees would welcome more if he will do thesame to EO 366”.       

COURAGE warns of an impending national mass action fromthe ranks of the government employees should P-Noy push through with his planto privatize state utilities and lay-off employees.  #