“This is called ‘natural attrition’, for the government doesn’t need to fire the employees: the employees would voluntarily resign due to high costs of transfer,” explains Ferdinand R. Gaite, national president of Courage.

Local government

The streamlining of government agencies is an issue not only at the national level, but also at the local levels.

The 42 Intramuros Administration casual employees have to say goodbye to their jobs this month because Anna Maria L. Harper, IA administrator has decided not to renew their contracts.

It is not only the relocation and dissolution of offices that poses threats to government employees’ job security but also Mrs. Arroyo’s tax efficiency measures.

This year, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Lateral Attrition Act of 2005, which according to the Bureau of Customs Employees’ Association (BOCEA), poses a very grave threat to their jobs.

The law penalizes with dismissal revenue officers who fall short of 7.5 percent of the management-imposed collection target.

Based on BOCEA’s data, 5,000 employees are in danger of losing their jobs if the Lateral Attrition Act is implemented.

The law will affect not only the BOC but also revenue generating agencies under the Department of Finance (DoF), like the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

While Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales is confident of hitting the revenue target this year, BOCEA fears that attaining this goal would be harder next year because of the world financial crisis.

“If the target is missed, the employees will be dismissed,” Gaite said in a statement.

Because of this, Courage spearheaded the creation of the Tanggol Trabaho or the Alyansa sa Pagtatanggol sa Trabaho ng mga Kawani ng Gobyerno (Alliance for the Defense of Government Employees’ Jobs) which aims to uphold the rights of government workers to job security as provided for by the 1987 Constitution.

The fight against privatization

The third quarter of the year was also a time of intense fights versus the government’s privatization schemes, which endanger not only the employees’ jobs but also the services that the various agencies are providing.

Contra-CBD or the Concerned Organizations against Transfer, Layoff, Demolition, and Privatization for the Quezon City Central Business District, was formed in order to resist the planned development of some 250.4-hectares of land at the North and East Triangles and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center into a first class business, residence and leisure area.

The said project, says Contra-CBD spokesperson Santiago Y. Dasmariñas, Jr., will displace more than 120,000 people living in urban poor communities in the said areas, will dislocate thousands of employees and deprive the public of precious services provided by government agencies and offices which will be transferred if the project would push-through.

The project will claim the lands where the National Food Authority, Sugar Regulatory Administration, Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Irrigation Administration, National Printing Office, National Power Corporation, Office of the Ombudsman, Land Transport Franchising and Regulatory Board, Land Transportation Office, Bureau of Internal Revenue-Main, Mines and Geosciences Bureau-DENR, Department of Agrarian Reform, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas QC Office stand.

“They have also plans of merging three major government hospitals: the Philippine Heart Center, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, the Lung Center of the Philippines to create Philippine Center for Specialized Health Care, a haven for medical tourism,” Dasmariñas said.

SWEAP, meanwhile, noted that SM Holdings, Inc. eyes the land where the GA and the RSCC are located as a prospective “development” area.

The Water Employees’ Response (WATER) also heightened its militancy against the proposed privatization of water districts all over the archipelago.

Rodrigo Aranjuez, WATER national president, said the privatization of water services would mean inadequate and inefficient service, as well as higher water rates.

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