Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Rice price hike take a toll on poor families
Even rice farmers in the eastern central Philippines are not exempted from economic hardships brought about by recent staple food price adjustments.
Indeed, the impact of ice price hike is more severe to rice farmers, who earns way less than the minimum wage.
Manrico Creer, a 41-year-old farm laborer in Tugop village, Tanauan, Leyte province has earned only P50 or $1.16 in one harvest day this week. The amount is just enough to buy a kilogram of rice, which is P45 or $1.05 per kilogram.
In the past three months, the price of this food commodity jumped up to P15 or 35 cents per kilogram.
“One kilogram of rice will not even make me and my wife full since we have 11 children,” said Creer while cutting rice stalks in one sunny morning.
Creer, who has been a rice farmer since he was 12, is one of the 45 laborers who agreed to join rice harvesting work in a two-hectare farm, owned by his neighbor. Workers get 20% of the trading cost of paddy rice as their pay. They divide the total among themselves.
“Now that staple food is expensive, there are many times that we just ate rice and lawlaw or cheap vegetables,” he added.
Lawlaw is a fimbriated sardine buried and preserved in salt, commonly eaten by impoverished families who have no other alternative to enhance the taste rice.
Food price adjustment during this period is expected since the country is still experiencing a traditional lean months, according to authorities. Lean month period is the time of year when there low rice harvest.
The National Food Authority (NFA) said rice farmers also buy rice at a high price because “they are also consumers.”
A trader buys rice grains at P14 or 33 cents per kilogram and sells well-milled rice to retailers at P40 or 93 cents. Retailers then sell the staple food to consumers at P45 or $1.05 per kilogram.
“That’s the nature of rice business and the government cannot control the trade. Farmer’s burden will be lessened if farmers will keep paddy rice, dry it and mill the grains on their own,” said NFA regional information officer Mary Agnes Militante.
Rice is considered as staple food in the Philippines where most people eat rice every meal. In Leyte province alone, every person consumes an average of 117 kilograms each year. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
DoLE takes over Samelco I labor row
published March 18, 2013 in BusinessWorld
TACLOBAN CITY -- The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has assumed jurisdiction over the labor dispute in the Samar Electric Cooperative I (Samelco I) in Calbayog City to avert a strike this week.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz issued on Friday an order certifying the labor dispute for “immediate compulsory arbitration” by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)
“Any intended strike or lockout or any concerted action is automatically enjoined. If one is already taking place, all striking and locked out employees shall, within 24 hours from receipt of this Order, immediately return to work and the employer shall immediately resume operations and readmit all workers under the same terms and conditions prevailing before the strike,” the order stated.
Both the management and the Samelco I Employees Union, who received copies on Saturday morning, welcomed the order.
“We are happy with the Secretary’s decision. There will be no work disruptions on Monday,” Rafael B. Payod, a member of the board, said in a telephone interview.
The utility filed on March 4, 2013, four days after the union filed a notice of strike, a petition requesting Ms. Baldoz to assume jurisdiction over the labor dispute.
“The Secretary’s order is much welcomed by the union since the management has no other choice but to present their counterproposal during arbitration. Our CBA (collective bargaining agreement) proposal is deemed approved,” Samelco I Employees Union President Divina Gracia C. Balite said in a separate interview.
The management has refused to recognize and negotiate with the union for a CBA despite a DoLE certification affirming the union as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent.
In a meeting Friday afternoon, Mr. Payod said the board has decided to appeal the DoLE certification. He said they were in no position to grant more benefits to the workers through a CBA as the utility owes the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. about 300 million.
Mr. Payod said they were prepared for a strike. Police and military assistance have been sought in securing vital installations. The 105-member union donned black shirts on Friday to protest the management’s refusal to bargain.
“We expected that through our silent protest, the management would change their decision but they did not,” Ms. Balite said.
Tomas B. Biboso, National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) regional conciliator-mediator, said the Labor department has acknowledged that a strike will not only affect the employees and their families but will also prejudice the 48,000 households and businesses that Samelco I serves in Samar province.
“It’s disappointing that the management has rejected our recommendation to negotiate. We asked them that if there’s deadlock, they should settle it with the regional arbiter. Now that the Secretary has assumed jurisdiction, the process is very costly. In the end, the NLRC will order the management to negotiate,” he said.
The dispute started in July last year, when the management questioned the union’s certification of election.
The union filed last Jan. 31 a notice of strike, but after six conciliation meetings, gave the management until March 15 to present its counterproposal for a CBA.
Samelco I serves 427 barangays of Calbayog City, Sta. Margarita, Gandara, San Jorge, Pagsanghan, Tarangnan, Matuguinao, Sto. Niño, Almagro and Tagapul-an in Samar. -- Sarwell Q. Meniano
TACLOBAN CITY -- The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has assumed jurisdiction over the labor dispute in the Samar Electric Cooperative I (Samelco I) in Calbayog City to avert a strike this week.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz issued on Friday an order certifying the labor dispute for “immediate compulsory arbitration” by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)
“Any intended strike or lockout or any concerted action is automatically enjoined. If one is already taking place, all striking and locked out employees shall, within 24 hours from receipt of this Order, immediately return to work and the employer shall immediately resume operations and readmit all workers under the same terms and conditions prevailing before the strike,” the order stated.
Both the management and the Samelco I Employees Union, who received copies on Saturday morning, welcomed the order.
“We are happy with the Secretary’s decision. There will be no work disruptions on Monday,” Rafael B. Payod, a member of the board, said in a telephone interview.
The utility filed on March 4, 2013, four days after the union filed a notice of strike, a petition requesting Ms. Baldoz to assume jurisdiction over the labor dispute.
“The Secretary’s order is much welcomed by the union since the management has no other choice but to present their counterproposal during arbitration. Our CBA (collective bargaining agreement) proposal is deemed approved,” Samelco I Employees Union President Divina Gracia C. Balite said in a separate interview.
The management has refused to recognize and negotiate with the union for a CBA despite a DoLE certification affirming the union as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent.
In a meeting Friday afternoon, Mr. Payod said the board has decided to appeal the DoLE certification. He said they were in no position to grant more benefits to the workers through a CBA as the utility owes the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. about 300 million.
Mr. Payod said they were prepared for a strike. Police and military assistance have been sought in securing vital installations. The 105-member union donned black shirts on Friday to protest the management’s refusal to bargain.
“We expected that through our silent protest, the management would change their decision but they did not,” Ms. Balite said.
Tomas B. Biboso, National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) regional conciliator-mediator, said the Labor department has acknowledged that a strike will not only affect the employees and their families but will also prejudice the 48,000 households and businesses that Samelco I serves in Samar province.
“It’s disappointing that the management has rejected our recommendation to negotiate. We asked them that if there’s deadlock, they should settle it with the regional arbiter. Now that the Secretary has assumed jurisdiction, the process is very costly. In the end, the NLRC will order the management to negotiate,” he said.
The dispute started in July last year, when the management questioned the union’s certification of election.
The union filed last Jan. 31 a notice of strike, but after six conciliation meetings, gave the management until March 15 to present its counterproposal for a CBA.
Samelco I serves 427 barangays of Calbayog City, Sta. Margarita, Gandara, San Jorge, Pagsanghan, Tarangnan, Matuguinao, Sto. Niño, Almagro and Tagapul-an in Samar. -- Sarwell Q. Meniano
Search ends; all bodies accounted for in geothermal complex landslide
published March 8, 2013 in BusinessWorld
TACLOBAN CITY -- The search for missing workers at the Leyte geothermal field ended yesterday with the recovery of two more bodies.
Kananga Mayor Elmer C. Codilla said the bodies of Salvador Yabana and Salcedo Jorden were found at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday and 4:45 a.m. yesterday, respectively.
"It took one week to complete the retrieval operation due to bad weather, fear of another landslide, and rescuers have to be extra careful in searching for buried corpses," Mr. Codilla told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview.
Mr. Codilla said clearing of debris has started to facilitate repair of damaged structures in PAD 403 of the Energy Development Corp. complex in Sitio Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao in Kananga.
A multi-party monitoring team composed of representatives from the government and private sector has been in the site to conduct an assessment.
Construction workers of J.E. Aradazza Construction and Supply, a subcontractor of First Balfour, Inc., were working on a slope protection project when a portion of the mountain eroded at 9:50 a.m. on March 1. Fourteen workers were buried alive while 31 others were hurt.
In a separate telephone interview, Kananga Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management officer Danilo M. Dasigan said that a 70-meter portion of the mountain crumbled and covered a 20-meter portion of the road. -- Sarwell Q. Meniano
TACLOBAN CITY -- The search for missing workers at the Leyte geothermal field ended yesterday with the recovery of two more bodies.
Kananga Mayor Elmer C. Codilla said the bodies of Salvador Yabana and Salcedo Jorden were found at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday and 4:45 a.m. yesterday, respectively.
"It took one week to complete the retrieval operation due to bad weather, fear of another landslide, and rescuers have to be extra careful in searching for buried corpses," Mr. Codilla told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview.
Mr. Codilla said clearing of debris has started to facilitate repair of damaged structures in PAD 403 of the Energy Development Corp. complex in Sitio Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao in Kananga.
A multi-party monitoring team composed of representatives from the government and private sector has been in the site to conduct an assessment.
Construction workers of J.E. Aradazza Construction and Supply, a subcontractor of First Balfour, Inc., were working on a slope protection project when a portion of the mountain eroded at 9:50 a.m. on March 1. Fourteen workers were buried alive while 31 others were hurt.
In a separate telephone interview, Kananga Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management officer Danilo M. Dasigan said that a 70-meter portion of the mountain crumbled and covered a 20-meter portion of the road. -- Sarwell Q. Meniano
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