Press Release
April 12, 2011
Government employees united under the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) today held a protest action in front of the National Housing Authority in order to express their outrage over the P1.50/liter oil price hike implemented today.
COURAGE National President Ferdinand Gaite slammed the price hike, saying “Government employees, like the majority of the Filipino people can no longer cope with the rising prices of commodities and services. As it is, we are already struggling to subsist on our meager salaries. With this recent oil price hike, most of the country’s 1.4 million government employees are living in abject poverty, prey to loan sharks and could barely make it to the next day to work. Thus, we have no other recourse but to push for a substantial salary adjustment, this time, focusing on the minimum pay earners or those employees who suffer the most,” Gaite declared.
Gaite also slammed the Aquino administration’s insensitivity to the demands of the labor sector.
“DOE Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr even has the gall to tell us that the fuel firms’ P1.50 hike was already an “accommodation of the government’s request to soften the impact of oil price hikes”, an obvious display that this government is nothing but a slave to the whims and greed of the oil companies. It has become a bad habit: the oil companies continuously increase their prices while the government rushes to justify the said increases,” Gaite said.
Gaite was referring to DOE’s pronouncement that today’s hike was already adjusted from P2.00/liter hike down to P1.50/liter due to the government’s appeal to big oil firms to “soften the impact of oil price hikes on the public.
The group also slammed the Aquino administration’s inaction regarding the rising costs of basic commodities and services.
“Noynoy’s obvious apathy to the legitimate demands of the labor sector is deplorable. Instead of pushing for band-aid solutions like paltry subsidies available only to selected sectors, Noynoy should immediately implement a substantial wage increase for both the public and private sector in order to provide immediate economic relief to the workers and employees reeling from the unabated price hikes, “ Gaite asserted.
COURAGE leaders and member organizations vowed to persist in calling for a Php 6,000 increase in the minimum pay of all government employees, while also supporting the call for a Php 125 across-the-board wage increase for workers in the private sector. They are calling on the people to join the Metro-wide noise barrage on April 14 at 4:00 in the afternoon and the May 1 protests dubbed “Workers’ and People’s Day of Outrage”. #
