UP
Unions Oppose Privatization of Gov’t Services
Government
employees face mass lay-off
Two
employees unions of the University of the Philippines in a joint statement
expressed their opposition to the latest plan to accelerate the privatization of
government services which, they said, makes government employees the sacrificial
lambs in the government’s inability to raise sufficient revenues and to
curtail public spending.
BY
LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat.com
BAGUIO
CITY— Two employees unions of the University of the Philippines in a joint
statement expressed their opposition to the latest plan to accelerate the
privatization of government services which, they said, makes government
employees the sacrificial lambs in the government’s inability to raise
sufficient revenues and to curtail public spending.
The
All UP Workers Union (AUPWU) and the All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU)
said that “payback time is here and the immediate potential victims are
government employees,” referring to the alleged misuse of government funds to
buy votes to ensure a fresh mandate for the Arroyo administration.
Clodualdo
Cabrera and Judy Taguiwalo, presidents of the AUPWU and AUPAEU, respectively,
also assailed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for not effecting substantial
benefits to government employees. Both
mentioned that “as government employees, we have not received any salary
increase under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.”
On the other hand, they said, government employees have been subjected to
increases in direct and indirect tax impositions by the government.
While
the Arroyo administration went on spending taxpayer money during the elections,
even before the official canvassing of votes for the President and the
Vice-President started, a US-based investment bank and research firm Bear,
Stearns and Co, Inc. has recommended the retrenchment of a substantial number of
public employees in order to reduce government spending.
On
June 2, the said unions observed, the Civil Service Commission’s Karina David
announced a rationalization scheme that would reduce the government workforce by
as much as 30%. David reportedly
agreed with the other multilateral institutions and investment banks that the
planned cut in the number of government employees would result in savings for
the government.
The
joint statement also mentioned that “government deficit cannot be attributed
to a 1.4 million government workforce for a population of over 80 million
people.” It said that various
groups have, time and again, pointed out that the government deficit is
principally a function of government’s faithful adherence to liberalization
and deregulation.
These
policies have reportedly reduced government income from import tariffs.
Besides, the automatic appropriations for debt payments eat up 29-40% of
the government budget. “Patronage and corruption also account for the
deficit,” Cabrera and Taguiwalo said.
They
said that the timing of the two news reports is but another proof that policies
affecting our jobs as Filipinos and as government workers are formulated in
Washington DC and in New York, both in the USA, as they likewise condemned the
continuing subservience of the Arroyo administration and the Civil Service
Commission to the dictates of multilateral agencies and other foreign firms such
as the Bear, Stearns and Co., Inc. Bulatlat.com
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