NEWS AT A GLANCE

OWWA turns back on OFW with terminal cancer -- Migrante
 
Migrante Party List (MSP) chairperson and first nominee Connie Bragas-Regalado said that as of Feb. 5, the “heartless” OWWA Administrator Virgilio Angelo had continued to deny medical assistance for the terminally-ill former overseas Filipino worker Josephine Asis Nariz.

After working as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong for 11 years, 36-year old Nariz of Sipocot, Camarines Sur, came home very weak last Sept. 29. She was diagnosed as suffering from colon cancer, now in its terminal stage, and has only until March this year to live.

“Since we are only poor folks, my sister needed to access her medical benefits to counter the cancer early on,” said Randy, Nariz’s brother. He blames the OWWA for denying her of medical assistance, which resulted in delayed medication leading to cancer complications in Nariz’s lungs and liver.

Bragas-Regalado said that the Omnibus Policies instituted by the OWWA Board of Trustees last Sept. 19 meant the loss of benefits and services to hundreds of thousands of OFWs and their families. The welfare agency limited its medical assistance and other services to OWWA members who are “active members” with live work contracts.
 
The migrant leader said that “once OFWs like Nariz finish their contracts or are terminated, they are branded inactive members – a technicality mandated by these Omnibus Policies.”

Migrante, along with OFWs and their families, are lobbying for the scrapping of the Omnibus Policies.

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Bayan Muna demands MWSS transparency on water rate arbitration

Bayan Muna secretary general and party-list nominee Nathanael Santiago denounced the closed-door hearing held Feb. 12 regarding the Lopez family-owned Maynilad Water Services’s failure to pay concession fees to the government and its alleged illegal collection of the foreign currency devaluation adjustment (FCDA) since January 2002.

Santiago also demanded transparency on the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) as a government regulator after he and representatives from consumer groups and non-government organizations who went to the MWSS compound in Quezon City as early as 9 a.m. that day were barred by the agency’s security guards from attending the hearing.

He also likened Maynilad's FCDA to the Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA) of power utility firm Meralco — only that “Meralco had the blessings of the government regulator (Energy Regulatory Commission) to collect PPA, while Maynilad has been illegally collecting the P4.07 per cubic meter (cu. m.) FCDA without the consent of the MWSS."

Santiago said the water firm, which services about eight million consumers in the western section of Metro Manila, has been collecting an illegal P4.07 per cubic meter in FCDA since January 2002 despite an overcharging case filed against it by the MWSS regulatory office.

Santiago also said that aside from the basic charge, consumers also pay for the FCDA, environment sewer's charge and currency exchange rate, items comprising 50% of their bills.  According to the MWSS regulatory office, Maynilad earned around P1.2 billion from unauthorized collection of FCDA in 2003 alone. 

"Despite the lack of substantial improvement in services, MWSS continued to grant requests for rate hikes of the two water firms,” Santiago said. “The MWSS, following the bidding of President Arroyo, pampered them and condoned their caper."

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Criminalization of labor disputes denounced

Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Pamantik or Unity of Workers in Southern Tagalog), the militant alliance of labor groups in Southern Tagalog, held a protest Feb. 10 in front of the Department of Justice in Manila regarding the increasing number of criminalized labor-related cases. 

Its chairman, Diosdado Fortuna, said that criminalization of labor disputes has become an alarming trend in Southern Tagalog through the active participation of many municipal trial courts in the region. “Most of the time,” he said, “the capitalists file fabricated criminal charges against workers to curb the militancy of the union.”

Pamantik-KMU records show that there are at least 300 workers, mostly on-strike, illegally dismissed or victims of illegal closure, who have been crying for justice for at least two years, while others for five years or more.

The group said such is the experience of striking workers of Nestle Philippines Inc., Nissan Motors Phils. Inc., RFM-Swift Meat Processing Plant, and JacLiner Transit.

Bulatlat.com 

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