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Ex-Philex workers seek Benguet SP help

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (Feb. 22) — Former Philex Mining Corporation (Philex) employers sought the assistance of the Benguet Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), asking the SP to stop Philex from cutting off the electricity from their bunkhouses.

These former Philex employers are residents of Brgy. Pacda in Tuba municipality.

Philex started disconnecting the electricity from the said bunkhouses as part of its eviction plan. The company ordered former employees to leave the mine camp on or before Feb. 15, on the basis that the company can no longer afford to accommodate them.

SP members decided to summon a representative of Philex to explain the electricity disconnection from the bunkhouses.

The SP also instructed the Tuba police and nearby municipality of Itogon not to take part in any eviction step initiated by the company. Residents reported that police personnel accompanied Philex electricians during the disconnection.

It can be recalled that last January 31, the SP signed Resolution number 05-36 requesting Philex not to evict its former employees pending the final decision of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on the legality of the retrenchment of the said former employees.

However, the Philex management maintained that the retrenchment is legal and in accordance with due process. “Now that the employer-employee relationship between PMC (Philex) and these separated employees had been severed, said housing benefits should also be severed,” stated the management’s letter to Benguet Gov. Borromeo P. Melchor.

The former employees said that the eviction order should be held in abeyance pending the final decision on the legality of their retrenchment.

Moreover, they claimed that Philex’s eviction is a means for them to “escape their obligations on the on-going labor case filed against the company.”

Meanwhile, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)-Cordillera Spokesperson James Tulipa criticized Philex for being inhuman to its former employees. Tulipa said that the company should be considerate enough given that it greatly benefitted from the hard labors of the retrenched workers. He stressed that Philex should wait for the final outcome of the labor case that will determine the status of their employer-employee relationship.

“They should stop acting like they are the law,” Tulipa ended. # Aldwin Quitasol for NORDIS

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