Revoke EO 7 Now!

Submitted by courage_phil on Fri, 11/12/2010 - 06:17.

A Position paper on Executive Order Number 7:

Directing the Rationalization of the
Compensation and position classification system in the Government-Owned and
Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) and Government Financial Institutions (GFIs)
and for other purposes

 

 

Last September 8, President
Aquino issued Executive Order No. 7 in the light of the expose on officials and
Executives of Government owned and Controlled Corporations receiving millions
of pesos in allowances, incentives and benefits.  The Order was apparently to 1). Rationalize
and standardize the compensation and other remunerations granted to all board
of director/trustees, officers and rank and file employees of GOCCs and GFIs,
2). Create a Task Force on Corporate Compensation, 3). Impose a Moratorium on
increases in salaries, Allowances, Incentives and Other Benefits and 4).
Suspend the grant of all allowances, bonuses, incentives and other perks to
members of the Board of Directors/Trustees of GOCCs and GFIs and 5). Consider
privatization as basis for setting the compensation levels.

 

Per our analysis and present
actual experiences, EO 7 failed to directly address the very purpose for which
the order was supposedly made – to review and remedy the scandalously
exorbitant allowances and other perks being enjoyed by the officers and members
of the board of trustees/directors of GOCCs and GFIs.  In fact, it only suspended the grant of the
same until December 31, 2010 or until the issuance of new policies and
guidelines on these. The issuance did not even lift a finger or go beyond the
usual rhetoric and dare prosecute the identified officials (the Commission on
Audit enumerated these top 40 who received millions in 2009 alone) who
themselves thought of the perks, approved the same and appropriated the needed
funds.   

Instead, it is the rank and file
employees who are now being made to endure the moratorium and freeze on
benefits and other incentives.

The very same rank and file
employees whose salaries were not even enough to afford them the cost of living
the government has pegged as basic in order to survive, not necessarily to live
decently. Hence, their benefits and other incentives were meant to augment
their meager salaries. In the first place, these benefits, incentives and other
remunerations were not even given to them on silver platter but were borne out
of their collective and concerted actions as workers who have the inherent
right to the fruits of their labor and collectively negotiate, and as part of
the public sector’s palpable gains in the struggle for a substantial if not
living wage adjustments.

However, with the implementation
of EO 7, these benefits traditionally being received during the months of October
to December of the year, including the Collective Negotiations Agreement
Signing Bonuses and Incentives, are now being jeopardized.  Unions of employees in the GOCCs and GFIs who
are set to conclude their CNAs this year have been warned by their respective
management that they cannot go beyond the standard and specific benefits
categorized and included in the Salary Standardization Law 3. An absurdity
since these CNAs they are referring to are not their first but their 3^rd
or 4^th, or in other cases even 5^th. Joint Resolution
Number 4 in a way recognizes the CNA in so far as its provisions mandated that
the necessary appropriations be included in the agency’s yearly budget
allocations.

The CNA in the public sector
unlike the CBA in the private sector, have been very limited because it cannot
include salaries and salary adjustments. This is further being restricted by
the issuances, disallowances and other policies of the government and its
intrumentalities such as the DBM, COA, CSC among many other.

The benefits in our CNAs and
other benefits we fought hard for and have been previously enjoying cannot in
any way be construed as being the same as the benefits and perks being enjoyed
by the GOCCs and GFIs Executives. These benefits are definitely not part of the
spoils system and corruption in the bureaucracy being perpetuated only by those
who have the means and the power to do so. To conclude the same is downright
injustice.

 We are opposed to EO 7 because it is a
violation of the basic premise of the highest law of the land that states
“There should be no diminution in pay” and our constitutionally guaranteed
rights as workers – “... to
self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful
concerted activities, including the right to strike in accordance with law.
They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a
living wage. They shall also participate in policy and decision-making
processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be provided by law”.
(ARTICLE XIII, LABOR, SECTION
3.)

It is simply unacceptable to use the
employees as scapegoats. To reason that the rank and file employees are
receiving the same benefits as their top officials and board of
directors/trustees is completely missing the point. How can you compare an
employee with a minimum salary of P7,000 who was granted let say an additional
monthly benefit equivalent to his monthly pay (P84,000 a year) to an executive
whose salary is P50,000 a month given the same benefit (P600,000 a year)?

 We are opposed to EO 7 because using
privatization as consideration for setting the compensation levels would signal
another unimpeded escalation of privatizing basic government services like
food, shelter, water, power, energy, mass transportation etc...It is like being
fried in one’s own lard – an increase in salaries and benefits today but
unemployment and more unaffordable and inaccessible public services tomorrow.

Like President Aquino’s
pronouncements, government employees are also against corruption and are for
transparency, accountability and prudence in spending the funds that came from
the peoples’ taxes. We have been fighting corruption because: (1) corruption is
part of the reason why our salaries are being pegged at starvation levels,
because any increase in the salaries of the employees shall mean lesser funds
to be plundered by the corrupt officials and a cut from the foreign debt
servicing allotment and other mispriorities in our national budget; (2) as
employees, we have been unwitting victims of the corruption of the very fund
that came from our blood and sweat, the GSIS Pension fund; and (3) we dare ask,
in truth and in practice, aside from our unions and the employee-whistle
blowers, who else in the bureaucracy has been genuinely exposing and opposing
corruption? 

 We call on President Aquino and other
concerned officials to rescind, revoke and junk EO 7. Government employees
shall remain steadfast in defending our salaries, benefits, jobs and rights and
in solidarity with the people’s struggle against the systemic and systematic
corruption until we achieve what we believe is genuine change.  #