By RJ Nieto
Twenty members of the Regent Foods Workers Union, aided by labor group Defend Jobs Philippines, staged a strike at Regent’s Pasig Factory on October 16th.
Defend Jobs said the strikers were demonstrating “against various reported cases of unfair labor practices and union-busting moves,” among other matters.
A day later, RFC complained that the handful of strikers prevented 300 non-striking employees from entering the Pasig factory, with one employee telling the police, “Bakit pati kami hinaharass? Gusto lang naman naming magtrabaho.”
RFC hired a private security firm to disperse the protesters who blockaded the Pasig Factory on November 17th.
Photos clearly show that the strikers were blocking the factory entrance.
The strikers, some armed with knives and other sharp weapons, resisted the dispersal. 20 RFC workers, two from Defend Jobs PH, and a bystander were charged with physical injuries and detained at the Pasig City Hall of Justice.
RFC said “several security agents were injured,” with one “still in critical condition” ten days later.
I believe in the freedom of association, but that freedom doesn’t include the freedom to stab other people.
Reacting to the incident, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on November 17th demanded that RFC to drop charges and publicly said, “If you want to have a healthy relationship with our city, I highly suggest you rethink your position.”
Sotto frowned upon RFC’s suggestion to “just trust the judicial process,” saying RFC execs are “multimillionaires who will eat 3x a day no matter what happens here; while the people they have sued have recently lost their main source of income and are now even torn away from their families.”
Sotto said he “met with and listened to both sides” and that RFC “can continue with the labor dispute without sending the poor and powerless to jail.” Shortly after that, Sotto helped the detainees post bail.
RFC denied Sotto’s claim, saying the company “wrote his office to ask his assistance in amicably pacifying the situation,” adding that “request merely fell on deaf ears,” forcing the RFC to hire private security.
RFC made it clear – and Sotto never denied – that it has been asking for the mayor’s assistance for weeks, assistance that was never extended, at least according to RFC.
I find Sotto’s aversion to trusting the judicial process uncharacteristic for someone who is tasked to enforce the law, especially someone who decries extrajudicial killings. After all, what Sotto wants to happen vis-à-vis the Regent Controversy is inherently extrajudicial.
Moreover, I never understood why Sotto refused to facilitate an amicable settlement before condemning RFC. It simply defies basic logic.
True enough, sources from Pasig City Hall told me that the Pasig City government denied RFC’s application for a Sanitary Permit, something that RFC was able to secure annually for the past three decades of its existence in the city.
Did Regent’s factories suddenly become unsanitary because of the labor issue? If law is reason free from passion, what is passion free from reason?
RFC sources, to avoid Sotto’s wrath, told me that the firm has decided to move its Pasig operations to its Taguig factory, which happens to be just a kilometer away. The same source said mass layoffs are highly unlikely due to the proximity of the two factories.
What’s clear, however, is that Pasig will lose whatever revenue it generates from RFC’s operations, revenue that will instead go to Taguig, revenue that could’ve been used to fund pro-poor services.
But this is not to say that Sotto should just leave businesses alone. A mayor’s job includes protecting workers’ rights, but it also includes making his city attractive to employers.
An excellent mayor knows how to strike a balance between these two competing interests, instead of protecting one and disregarding the other. Moreover, one should resort to a hardline stance only after exhausting all other less abrasive means.
The young mayor, unfortunately, jumped the gun.
What message did he send to current and future Pasig investors?
Not a very enticing one, obviously.
I admire the mayor’s passion: we need more public servants who wear their hearts on their sleeves.
But passion must have its limits. As Lao Tzu once said, a flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
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