I WAS disturbed when I heard Justice Secretary Leila de Lima say over television that she would no longer talk to media about what happened during that meeting last Sunday with Iglesia ni Cristo leaders. That meeting lasted past midnight.
According to De Lima, she did not want to be misquoted. She did not want her statement getting distorted by the media.
Santa Banana, that was an insult on the credibility of media. De Lima was just a nobody, a chairperson of the Human Rights Commissions and an election lawyer before President Aquino picked her up from nowhere to be his attack dog.
Where would De Lima be if media were to boycott her? She is an ingrate. Remember that when she runs for the Senate in 2016.
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Many things have been said about President Aquino for his lack of empathy and sensitivity to the poor and the aggrieved, and the utter ineptitude, incompetence of the administration, and about their brand of selective justice.
Until now, justice has eluded the relatives of the Fallen 44, Yolanda survivors are still living in tents and bunkhouses, and refugees in that Zamboanga City standoff between government forces and the Misuari-led Moro National Liberation Front are still waiting for promises given them. Some of them in fact are still living miserably at a sports stadium.
These are the things we will remember President Aquino for when he steps down in June 2016.
Aside from these, some 900 Customs employees—some of whom have since died and retired—still have to receive their overtime pay and transportation and meal allowances. This, after they have worked beyond the eight-hour-a-day requirement to provide inbound and outbound services to domestic and foreign airlines.
Let me refresh your memory: On Feb. 6, 2006, the Bureau of Customs issued a Customs Administrative Order which increased the overtime pay and allowances rates of Naia Customs personnel from P25 per US$1 to P55 per US$1.
Before that, following the practice of other airports in other countries, airlines have been paying the overtime and allowance of Customs, Immigration and Quarantine personnel religiously.
The Board of Airline Representatives objected to the increase, and requested the Finance Department to defer the implementation of the Customs request. The DOF denied the BAR demand which compelled the DAR to elevate the case to the Office of the President. But the Office of the President dismissed the DAR appeal. Thus, the DAR elevated the case to the Court of Appeals, citing double compensation since Customs airport personnel were already getting their pay from Customs.
When the Appellate Court decided the case in favor of the airlines, the case was elevated to the Supreme Court.
On Sept. 14, 2011, the Supreme Court decided in the case of Office of the President et al, vs Board of Airline Representatives. It upheld the validity of the Customs Administrative Order, citing a provision of the Customs and Tariff Code of the Philippine mandating such payment. The Office of the Solicitor General was cited for this Court decision. The decision became final and executory on Jan. 11, 2012.
The airlines, however, have refused to follow the Supreme Court. Instead of paying, they requested from Customs that the amounts to be paid should cover only from March 16, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2010, and that such amount should be reduced by 20 percent. They claimed there were duplicate charges by Customs in its invoices. Ironically, Immigration overtime and allowances were paid.
Up to this day, the BAR led by Philippine Airlines has been promising payment, but that has been four years. The estimated amount the airlines should pay to Naia Customs personnel was placed at P1.7 billion, but not a single centavo has been paid to some 900 Customs personnel.
What is sad is that the Finance Department and the Bureau of Customs have since done away with the practice of overtime of airport personnel and have recruited people to the tune of more than P1 billion. Santa Banana, this is doubly tragic for the unpaid Customs personnel.
Why cannot Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Customs Commissioners from the time of Lito Alvarez, Ruffy Biazon, John Philip Sevilla and now Bert Lina compel the airlines to pay their employees who rendered overtime? Why can’t they compel the airlines, especially PAL which heads the BAR, to protect their own Customs personnel?
Whom are they working for, anyway?
In so many columns, I have written about this. But nothing has happened.
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So, Malacañang has directed the PNP Highway Patrol Group to manage Metro Manila’s traffic nightmare, in tandem with the Metro Manila Development Authority.
I have doubts that the HPG can do better than MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino.
What Metro Manila needs is the “3 Es”—education of drivers, who are mostly uneducated; engineering, which is currently needed to build more highways and even a subway and lastly, enforcement, which means disciplining of drivers and commuters.
Santa Banana, there are just too many vehicles plying Metro’s streets! With the 3Es, however, it is still possible to make Edsa and other thoroughfares more bearable and save the country of P6 billion lost in productive hours everyday.
The proposed odd-even plan is anti-poor. Only the rich can afford two or more cars. What does Secretary Jun Abaya of the Transportation Department care since he has several cars, much less the President?
There are so many traffic management plans, but they would take some time to achieve. Why can’t Malacañang engage experts to solve this?