STATE WORKERS’GROUP WARNS GOVERNMENT NOT TO BACKLASH AGAINST NPO EMPLOYEES, FORESEES MORE ELECTION-RELATED ANOMALIES TO BE UNCOV

Submitted by courage_phil on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 07:39.

The Confederation for
Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) today
warned the Arroyo government not to violently get back at the National Printing
Office (NPO) employees who leaked to the media that the 1.7 million ARMM
ballots were printed without the NPO security markings.

 

“We laud the
employees who divulged the information even if it would mean risking their jobs
and lives. It is an exemplary display of genuine public service. We will give
our all-out support to the NPO employees especially that their union is our
affiliate. In the spirit of militant, progressive and nationalist unionism, we
encourage all state workers to expose and oppose all government-initiated
cheating manoeuvres,” said COURAGE National President Ferdinand Gaite.

 

Gaite feared that the
NPO employees will be harassed because of the incident. “We already had an
experience in the past that the NPO management went after the employee who
exposed the anomaly in the Poeple’s
Initiave Referendum in 2005. The said employee was forced to resign from
service because of the several threats that he got from the management.”

 

The leader revealed
that the NPO employees are more afraid now since their office is militarized,
with retired police general Servando Hizon as the head of the NPO. Hizon, a
known loyal ally of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, belongs to the PMA class ’73
and a mistah of retired Navy
Vice-Admiral Tirso Danga. He replaced Danga, a former Intelligence Service of
the AFP (ISAFP) chief in May 2004, whose appointment was retracted after
several groups voiced grave concerns because of his alleged involvement in the
‘Hello Garci.’

 

Gaite dared the NPO
to publicize the ARMM ballots to dispel all uncertainties. He added that a
reliable source has also reported to his group that the NPO is not meeting its
650,000 ballots-per day-target. “Our source said that the NPO has only printed
2,398,000 ballots as of February 18. They are only averaging 200,000 ballots
per day which is not even half of their original target. This is something that
we should worry about since the NPO has not even updated us of the progress of
the ballot printing. The media and party representatives are not allowed to
observe the whole duration of the printing process. If they will continue with
this trend, they will certainly not finish the 50 million ballots on or before
the April 25 deadline. Ang kinakatakot
lang namin ay baka ngayon may nag-iimprenta na ng mga balota sa ibang lugar
labas sa NPO. A regime that desperately clings to power will do anything to
manipulate the 2010 elections,” added Gaite.

 

EMPLOYEES’ OVERTIME PAY SACRIFICED

 

The militant group
also expressed outrage over the non-payment of the NPO employees’ overtime pay
due to the depletion of the P110 million allotment for the ballot printing.
Smartmatic charged NPO P1 per ballot to have the agency’s security markings
printed on the ballots. All ballots with NPO security markings would roughly
cost at least P50 million. P25 million and P6 million (of the P110
million-contract) were already spent for the construction of the room where the
ballot printing is being conducted, and for the electricity and supplies
expenses, respectively. Gaite said that almost nothing will be left for the
employees’ overtime pay which they targeted to reach almost P60 million based
from the amount earmarked last 2007 elections.

 

“It is abhorrent to let
the employees suffer for the assertion of something which in the first placed
is mandated by law. The NPO workers are doing a 12-hour duty just to beat the
election deadline. Marami na nga sa
kanila ang nagkakasakit dahil sa sobrang trabaho tapos kulang o wala pang
overtime pay,” said Gaite.

 

The leader claimed that
the charge for the security markings was only imposed by Smartmatic and did not
even undergo proper consultation. According to Gaite, this is the first time
that the NPO will be charged for affixing its security markings on the ballots.
“This election process- from the troubleshooting of the ballot printing
machines and PCOS to deciding on the issue of the security markings- is
practically run by Smartmatic.  Our government is at the mercy of a
foreign company. Kung ano sabihin nila,
sunud-sunuran ang COMELEC at NPO. Isn’t this a clear affront to our
national sovereignty? The Arroyo government is blatantly allowing the
Smartmatic to be the primary decision maker in our country’s most sacred
process,” Gaite ended. #